


Labyrinth: Siege of Wishers

by FrancesOsgood



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:22:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26288692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrancesOsgood/pseuds/FrancesOsgood
Summary: The Runners who tried and failed have no memory of the event or of the child they wished away. The ones who traded the child for their dreams... they remember everything. And now they want revenge.
Relationships: Jareth & Sarah Williams
Comments: 106
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am including a playlist for this story:   
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6MxdWNr5pSFQkwmMTP8Ibi
> 
> Theme Music: Call to Adventure by Jonas B. Ingebretsen

Sarah shivered in the cool dampness of the cave and rubbed her hands up and down over the goose-pimpled flesh of her bare arms. She had dressed for the oppressive humidity of the Yucatan jungle and her ensemble, a cream-colored tank top, khaki shorts and her well-worn hiking boots, did little to keep out the chill of the underground pool. Willing her body to stop shaking and her voice to remain steady, she called out over the crystal blue waters of the cenote.

“I wish to speak to the goblin king right now.”

Her voice echoed around the vaulted cavern and down the narrow passage through which she’d ventured. In some tight spots she had had to crawl on her hands and knees to reach the underground lake. Sarah stood still and waited as the echoes faded and died and all she could hear was the steady drip-drop of pearls of water falling from the stalactites into the aquamarine pool. Another shudder rattled her body as the light that had been pouring down from the domed ceiling of the cavern faded, leaving her in the dark stillness. She didn’t enjoy being in the creepy cave alone, but her local guide, Izan, had refused to accompany her further than the mouth of the passage leading down to  _ Cenote de Duende.  _

“No,” he’d told her, making the sign of the cross over his chest. “This is not a place for the living. Only the dead and the Ancient Ones.”

Sarah had laughed inwardly at his superstition until she remembered that she had come to the cenote to contact a supernatural being from an unworldly realm. 

The darkness around her seemed to deepen and she squinted in the dim light as a chill played over the exposed skin of her arms. An eerie quiet fell over the cave and Sarah stumbled backwards toward the entrance, eager to leave the cold blackness for the sweltering heat and welcome light of the jungle.

“Never mind,” she spoke into the darkness. 

A deep chuckle echoed around the cave and she spun around, losing her footing on the slick rocks and landing with a thud on her back. She let out a loud groan and tried to look around, but the cavern seemed to spin around her like tilt-a-whirl, making her feel sick and dizzy. The laughter grew louder above her as she forced herself to lie still to make the spinning stop.

“Sarah Williams,” purred a voice from above her.

Finally looking up from where she lay sprawled at the pool’s edge, she saw the lithe figure of the goblin king lounged casually on an outcropping of rock. He lay propped up on one arm, one leg bent at the knee and the other dangling over the side of the rock ledge.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but the pain in her head and backside rendered her dumb. She simply winced and continued to stare up at him as he sat up and smiled.

“Did you forget your lines again, Sarah dear?” he asked, rising to his feet. He stepped over the side of the rock ledge and walked down the wall of the cavern. Sarah watched him as he moved nimbly over slick rocks, recalling his gravity-defying performance on the staircases just before their final confrontation. At last, his pointed boots touched the floor of the cave and the king of the goblins stalked over to where she lay. 

As he towered over her, the light from above poured down into the cavern, illuminating his features and bringing him sharply into focus. Sarah took in a sharp breath. He was still impossibly beautiful. His honey-blonde hair was tamer, though still wild and now streaked with deep purple. He wore a billowing purple shirt, opened at the chest, his shining pendant glinting against his snowy skin. His pants were black leather, laced in the front and tight enough to leave little to the imagination. His face was just as she remembered, angular and otherworldly with delicately arched eyebrows over his strange but entrancing eyes. 

“Isn’t this charming?” he said, waggling a sculpted eyebrow and smirking down at her. It was only then that Sarah came to the mortifying realization that she was flat on her back before him with her long legs splayed wide open. 

Turning crimson, she tried to sit up but fell back against the rocks with a groan. With a pleased smile and a little chuckle, the goblin king extended a gloved hand out to her. She accepted it and he heaved her to her feet, but still unsteady, Sarah pitched forward, falling gracelessly against him. His body was cool and firm against hers and she couldn’t help but remember when she had been pressed against him in his lurid masquerade ball. Beneath her flushed cheek, his chest rumbled with another deep chuckle, and she pushed herself off him, red-faced and mumbling curses. 

“Well?” he asked as he watched her flustered mutterings. His odd eyes narrowed down on her, raking over her figure. His gaze settled on her breasts and Sarah glanced down and noticed that her nipples, hardened by the chill of the cave, were straining against her thin top. She let out a loud huff and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I… I…” Sarah stammered, flustered. “My brother is missing,” she said at last.

The king remained still, without so much as a flinch at her words. At last regaining her composure, Sarah continued.

“Do you have him?” she asked pointedly.

The goblin king frowned. “Why would I have your brother?” he asked.

“You took him before,” Sarah replied, straightening her back and looking him dead in the eye. 

“When  _ you  _ asked me to, Sarah Williams,” the king of the goblins said, circling her. His eyes continued to study her, glancing over her figure as he paced around her. “And as I recall,” he continued, “you won him back and I returned him to you as I promised.” He stopped pacing in front of her and glared hard into her eyes. 

“Yes, you did,” Sarah answered, stepping backward and away from his cold stare. “But I thought perhaps you might have some sort of vendetta against me. Maybe you stole him again out of spite.”

The goblin king threw his head back and guffawed, the sound echoing over the cavernous cenote. “What makes you think I gave you a second thought once you left my kingdom?” he sneered. “Do you think so highly of yourself as to think I’ve spent the past thirteen years plotting revenge on a spoiled brat of a girl who couldn’t be bothered to babysit her little brother for a while?” 

“I don’t know…”

“I don’t have your little brother, Sarah Williams. I had more than my fill of the both of you the  _ first  _ time!” He turned on his heel and began to stomp away. 

“I--I’m sorry,” Sarah called after him. “It’s just that Toby never just disappears. Something has happened to him and I’m worried.” The king stopped and turned back to her. Seeing the anxious look on her face, his expression softened. 

“You really are concerned, aren’t you?” he asked.

Sarah nodded. “He went out to meet friends at the park, but then he never came home. My dad found his phone at the park. He wouldn’t have just left it.”

Turning away, Sarah walked to the edge of the water and looked down into its blue depths. “Dad and Karen spoke to the police, but they were less than helpful. They think he just ran away, but I know better. Toby wouldn’t…” Her voice trailed off. 

The goblin king joined her at the water’s edge and Sarah caught a whiff of his scent, a heady mix of oiled leather and the essence of rainbowed mist from a waterfall. 

“I promise you that I don’t have Toby,” he told her. 

Sarah nodded and let out a long sigh, her shoulders slumping.

“You sound disappointed,” said the goblin king with a low chuckle. “Are you really that eager for me to be your villain?”

“No,” answered Sarah, shaking her head. “I just…” she paused and looked up at the goblin king. “I wouldn’t really be so worried if I knew Toby was with you.” 

“Hmph,” grunted the goblin king. “Maybe I would turn him into a goblin.”

Sarah smiled wistfully. “Whenever I told Toby the story of the labyrinth, I always told him about how much fun the child had with the king and his goblins. How they sang and danced…” 

The goblin king grunted again and crossed his arms over his chest. “I think I prefer being the villain in your story.”

There was a long silence before the king spoke again. “I’ll help you to find him if you wish, Sarah. I did become rather fond of the boy…”

“No thank you,” Sarah answered more forcefully than she’d intended before softening her tone. “I mean, I appreciate the offer, but I know that favors from your kind come with a price. One that’s usually too high for mortals to pay.”

“Clever girl,” the goblin king said with a knowing smile. “You are planning to venture out on your own to look for him then, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then allow me to impart one thing to you with the solemn promise that it has no strings attached,” the king said, taking a step toward Sarah and laying a leather-clad hand on her bare shoulder.

Even through the gloves, the unexpected contact sent a jolt of electricity through her skin. She’d forgotten the tingle of his touch, the prickles of magic and unspoken secrets that had danced over her as he had twirled her around the crystal ballroom. He’d worn gloves then too, but she’d still felt the thrumming of enchantments in his fingertips through the bodice of her sugar-spun gown. The memory quickened her pulse and sent a flood of warmth through her veins to pool in her core.

“What is it?” she asked, trying to hide the breathlessness of her voice.

In answer, he dipped his head and pressed his lips gently to hers. Sarah’s eyes snapped shut before she could even register the action and she leaned into him. Just as she was working up the nerve to move her lips slowly against his, his mouth left hers and she opened her eyes to find that she was once again alone in the dark cave. 

She glanced around the cavernous space looking for any sign of the illustrious king, but he had vanished as quickly as he had appeared.

“Bastard,” Sarah muttered under her breath. 

A disembodied chuckle rang out through the cave and frowning, Sarah marched away from the crystal blue cenote and back toward the entrance of the cave.

Shielding her eyes against the dazzling sunlight as she emerged from the deep cavern, Sarah looked around for Izan. She spotted him up the hill standing by the battered truck he’d driven out to the hidden cenote. She called out to him and he turned toward her and visibly paled.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked him and he backed away from her, hurriedly making the sign of the cross over his chest. 

“Stay away,” he cried as he continued to back away, fumbling for the door of his truck. “I am a good man,” he uttered in Spanish. “I didn’t do anything wrong…”

“Of course you didn’t,” Sarah told him. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I go,” said Izan. He swung the drivers’ side door open and clambered inside before locking the doors.

“Izan,” exclaimed Sarah. “Stop being ridiculous. Take me back to the village. I have to catch my flight back home.”

The man only shook his head before revving the engine and peeling off down the dirt road, leaving Sarah in a cloud of red dust.

“Well, this is just great!” she yelled as she watched the truck disappear. She was miles from the village on a road with very little traffic. Since Izan had agreed to take her out to the cenote, she’d not felt the need to take along her supply pack. It was still back in her tiny cabin, filled with bottled water, some granola bars, a flashlight and a map. Worse still, if she missed her flight back to the States there wouldn’t be another for at least two weeks. 

“Fuck,” cursed Sarah, kicking the dirt. She let out a sigh knowing that pitching a temper tantrum was hardly going to help her situation. 

“Well, c’mon feet,” she said as she walked up the hill toward the main road. 

She followed the winding dirt road for what seemed like hours, stopping from time to time to adjust her worn boots or to sweep her long hair out of her face. The heat was almost unbearable, the midday sun burning down on her bare shoulders and the humidity leaving her drenched in sweat. 

Just as she was beginning to think she would suffocate in the thick, soupy air, she heard the rattle of an automobile coming up the road behind her. Sarah turned and saw an SUV rumbling toward her. She waved her arms frantically at the approaching vehicle and it slowed as it neared. The car stopped by the side of the road where she stood and the driver’s side window buzzed down. A man wearing dark shades and a Panama hat stuck his head out and looked her up and down. 

“What on earth are you doing out here alone in the jungle?” he asked and Sarah noticed a British lilt to his voice. 

“I’m headed back to the village. My guide left me,” Sarah answered. “I came out to see  _ Cenote de Duende.”  _

“Good heavens,” said the man, adding a tisk. “May I offer you a ride?”

“Are you an axe murderer?” Sarah asked. 

“Of course,” replied the man with a smile.

“Good. Me too,” said Sarah. 

The man laughed and unlocked the door with a click and Sarah went around the front of the vehicle and climbed into the passenger’s seat. 

“I’m Sarah, by the way,” she told the driver as she fastened her seat belt.

“I’m Percy,” he answered, offering his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Sarah The Axe Murderer.”

He shook her hand before steering the SUV back onto the road and heading toward town. 

“I take it you’re not local,” Percy said as they bumped along the dirt road. 

“No,” answered Sarah. “I’ve been here working at the little clinic in the village. You know, giving immunizations and wellness checks.” 

“Ah!” exclaimed Percy. “ _ Doctor  _ Sarah The Axe Murderer.” 

Sarah laughed and shook her head. “I’m not a doctor, just a med tech. I do the grunt work.” 

“Are you on duty this evening?” asked Percy. 

He removed his hat and pushed his sunglasses from their perch on his nose and onto the top of his head, allowing Sarah to finally get a good look at his face. He looked to be in his mid to late 40s, handsome with sandy-brown hair streaked with grey at his temples. His eyes were hazel and deep set and he had full lips and a square jawline. His skin was unnaturally tanned, no doubt darkened from hours in a lounge chair under the Mexican sun. 

“No,” Sarah answered. “I’m actually catching a flight back to the States. Bit of an emergency back home.”

“I see,” said Percy. “Family trouble?”

“You could say that,” Sarah told him. 

“So why were you down in the cenote?” 

“I--um, I wanted to see it before I left. You know, a bucket list kind of thing,” Sarah lied. “Unfortunately,” she continued, “My guide got spooked and I’ve been melting in the jungle for the past few hours.” 

She knew she must look a mess. Her clothes were dirty and sweaty, her hair was a frizzy tangle from the horrible humidity and her fair face was free of makeup, leaving the sprinkling of freckles across her nose on full display. 

“Well, if it’s all the same,” said Percy, “I think you look lovely.”

“Right,” grunted Sarah.

“Truly,” Percy argued. “Your skin and eyes are so bright. You look as if you’ve been kissed by the sun god.”

Sarah flushed and turned away, remembering the kiss she’d been given earlier deep in the cenote. Her lips tingled at the memory of the goblin king’s mouth on hers. For years she had wondered what it would be like to kiss him. She’d wanted him to kiss her when he’d loomed over her seductively in the labyrinth tunnels. She’d hoped for the same when they had danced together in the crystal ballroom. Sarah squirmed in her seat, embarrassed by the thought that she wouldn’t have stopped him from kissing her deeper. In fact, she would have welcomed it, opening her mouth to him, letting him caress her tongue with his…

“Earth to Sarah,” Percy was saying. Sarah snapped out of her lustful haze and turned to face him. 

“What?” she asked, trying to hide her agitation. 

“I asked if there was a Mr. The Axe Murderer,” said Percy with a chuckle.

“Oh. Uh, no. Not anymore.”

“Oh dear,” Percy laughed. “Did he get the axe too?”

“No,” answered Sarah. “I’m divorced. I only murder strangers who pick me up from the side of the road.”

“Lucky me then,” her companion purred. He smiled and winked at her and something about the action made her strikingly uncomfortable. Shaking the feeling away, Sarah changed the subject. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Gathering information,” he answered simply. 

“On?”

He gave her a sly grin and shrugged.

“Oh, I get it,” said Sarah. “You’re MI-5, right?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Percy said. “It’s classified. “I’d have to kill you.”

“Hey, who’s the axe murderer here?”

“I thought we both were,” replied Percy with a laugh before continuing. “If you must know, my organization is looking to acquire some new real estate. I’m here to see that this acquisition is moving along as planned. It’s quite a delicate operation; lots of moving parts, you see. It’s imperative that everyone and everything is where they need to be.”

“And are they?” asked Sarah.

Percy gazed at her oddly before answering. “Apparently,” he replied with a smile.

Sarah was about to question him further when the SUV stopped abruptly, throwing her back against her seat.

“Here we are,” Percy said, motioning toward the rickety complex that served as the village clinic and dormitories. “Thank you for the pleasure of your company.” He reached across her to unfasten her seatbelt and his hand brushed lightly over her bare shoulder. “I hope we will meet again someday, Sarah Williams,” he told her.

“Um, right,” Sarah muttered as she climbed out of the SUV, trying to think back to whether she had told Percy her last name or not. She was almost certain she hadn’t. There was no way he could know…

“Thanks for the lift,” she told him.

“My pleasure,” he replied from the open window. He slid his sunglasses back down over his eyes and sped away and Sarah watched, befuddled as the SUV disappeared into the blinding midday sun.

* * *

The flight back home was excruciatingly long, with a number of layovers and plane changes. Sarah looked out the small window at the carpet of clouds and thought of her brother. Perhaps the police were right and he  _ had  _ run away. He was thirteen and in the middle of the angsty hormonal stew of adolescence. 

Sarah shook her head. No, there was more to this than teenage angst. Toby would not have run away. Even if he had been in trouble he would have reached out to her. He always did. There was something darker at play here. Despite the goblin king’s earlier protestations of innocence, Sarah felt certain the cunning Fae was involved in some way. 

“That kiss was probably a distraction,” she thought, fuming. “He was trying to throw me off my guard just like he did in the tower with all that ‘Fear me, love me’ bullshit.”

Sarah leaned back in her cramped seat and tried to rest, but sleep was elusive. There were too many questions bombarding her overtaxed brain. Where could Toby be? Was he in danger? Was he perhaps Underground without the goblin king’s knowledge? Sarah doubted that very little passed unnoticed beneath the monarch’s keen gaze. Was the king telling the truth? 

Tired and frustrated Sarah finally dozed as the plane carried her away from the Mexican jungle and toward home where she would hopefully find some answers. 

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Sarah couldn’t really blame her stepmother for what happened to Toby’s phone. She supposed she would have done the same in a similar position. Too many unsuccessful attempts at breaking the lock code had resulted in the phone’s memory being wiped, rendering it useless.

“I’m sorry,” Karen had sniffled. “I was just desperate to find out what happened to Toby!”

“It’s okay, Karen,” Sarah told her, knowing that it wasn’t. The phone could have possibly shown them who her brother was going to meet before he disappeared. 

“There must be records at the cell provider,” Sarah offered. She looked to her father. “Can’t the police get access to those?”

Robert Williams shook his head. “No,” he told her. “This isn’t like the police dramas on television, Sarah. The service provider won’t just hand over transcripts of cell phone messages to police without a warrant.”

“Even if the person may be in danger?” Sarah asked.

“That’s just the thing,” answered her father. “The police don’t think Toby  _ is  _ in danger. They think he’s just run away from home.”

“You don’t believe that, do you, Dad?”

Robert Williams sank down into his recliner and rubbed his forehead and Sarah couldn’t help but notice how much grayer his hair was since the last time she had seen him. His eyes, normally sharp and clear, seemed clouded with worry and stress. Sarah’s chest clenched to see her father so ill-at-ease and unsure.

“I don’t know, Sar,” he finally answered, running a hand through his thinning hair. “Your brother has been on a rather… difficult streak lately. He and I butt heads regularly. All he wants to do is stay holed up in his room playing games on his computer. I can’t get him to do his chores or his homework or--”

“What kinds of games?” Sarah interrupted. Robert shrugged and looked toward his wife.

“Adventure games, mostly,” answered Karen. “You know, MPG.”

“Do you mean, RPG?” asked Sarah.

“Yes, that’s it,” Karen replied, shaking her head. “I don’t understand all this new lingo with kids these days.”

“It means role-playing games,” Sarah told her. “They role-play going on quests and adventures.”

Toby had briefly told her about his newest obsession right before she left for the Yucatan. He’d been excited to have finally found some friends who shared his enthusiasm for knights and epic quests. Sarah had shared in his excitement. Toby, like her, had always been a bit of a loner. He wasn’t unfriendly, but most of the kids his age tended to shy away from him. His parents had no clue why, but Sarah had a guilty suspicion that his social isolation had to do with the fact that he was Fae-touched. He had no memory of his time in the Underground with the goblins and their mercurial king, but the experience had marked him nonetheless. It was no wonder that Toby was so happy to have some friends with similar interests.

“Have you checked his computer to see who he was talking to?” Sarah asked her parents. “Maybe he was going to meet someone from online.”

Karen looked at her, horrified. “You mean he could have gone out to meet some stranger he met on the internet?” she cried.

Sarah stood and laid a reassuring hand on her stepmother’s shoulder. “I don’t know that for certain, Karen, but it’s a possibility. I need to look at Toby’s computer.”

* * *

Picking her way through piles of dirty laundry, books and trash, Sarah finally made it to her brother’s computer desk. She swept aside several game cartridges and empty food containers and opened Toby’s laptop. The screen lit up to a log-in page and Sarah carefully scanned it. 

GOBLIN QUEST was spelled out in swirling letters at the top of the page with a greeting underneath that read:

_ Welcome to the Underground! Enter your username and password to gain passage into the realm of the goblins. But beware, all is not as it seems. There are dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. Enter and try your hand at defeating the ever-changing maze and the cruel king at its center.  _

Sarah swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She knew perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised that Toby was interested in such a game. She had told him the story of the Labyrinth often when he was little. To him, it was just a fairytale, but it was obvious to her that the story had stayed with him. However, the fact that someone else knew the story and had created a role-playing game around it unnerved her for some reason. She supposed that there must have been more than one copy of the well-worn book she had been obsessed with as a young girl. There must have been many others who had read it and loved it as she had. No doubt this game’s creator had simply wanted to bring the cherished book to life. That was all, wasn’t it?

“Only one way to find out,” Sarah muttered as she clicked on the login button. She was relieved when the spaces automatically filled in Toby’s information. She hit the enter button and the page opened up to a picture of a landscape she knew all too well. She recognized the odd angles and sharp spires of the labyrinth. The twisting castle at its center was unmistakable as well. Her eyes widened with the realization of what she was looking at. There was no way that anyone could depict the labyrinth so perfectly just from reading the book. Whoever had created the picture had detailed information. They had been to the Labyrinth. Or perhaps they even ruled it.

“Fuck,” groaned Sarah. It wasn’t impossible that Jareth was using this RPG as a front in order to lure her brother back into his grasp, despite his earlier declarations of innocence. She didn’t doubt a tricky bastard like him, though probably ancient, would have no trouble using modern technology against unsuspecting mortals. Perhaps this was the revised edition of the little red book and the goblin king was using it to entice the children of the electronic age into wishing away their siblings. 

A ping on the computer roused Sarah from her ruminations and she looked up at the screen. A chat had come in to Toby from someone in the group with the screen name Sir Ector. 

_ -Hey Lancelot, long time no see. Where ya been, dude? _

Sarah thought for a moment before sending the electronic reply.

_ -I got grounded again. _

_ -Bummer. Guess you didn’t get to go with the RTKs on the quest, huh?  _ replied the unseen contact.

_ -No, and I’m really miffed about it. What was that quest about again? _

_ -Miffed? Really? You sound like an old fart. And you were the one going on non-stop about getting to go with the RTKs on the Top Secret quest. Wait, is this your dad? _

“Damn it,” Sarah spat. She paused and weighed her options. Obviously, this contact knew her brother and could possibly give her some information on who he might have been meeting at the park. She decided to drop the facade.

_ -This is Toby’s sister. The guy you know as Lancelot is missing. He was supposed to meet someone at the park several days ago just before he disappeared. Maybe someone from this group. Please, I need your help to find him. He might be in danger. Can you tell me anything?  _

There was a long pause on the other end of the conversation and Sarah held her breath, praying that she hadn’t spooked her contact. Finally the computer pinged again and she read the message.

_ -What do you want to know? _

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sarah quickly typed a message back. 

_ -Who are the RTKs and what was the top secret quest they were supposed to go on? _

_ -RTKs= Round Table Knights. I don’t know anything about the quest. It was Top Secret, duh. _

“Smart ass,” Sarah muttered under her breath as she typed another message.

_ -Who are the Round Table Knights? How can I contact them? _

Sarah sat back in Toby’s desk chair and waited for a reply. Several minutes passed, but there was no answer to her message. Frustrated she typed out another question.

_ -Hello? Are you still there? Please, Sir Ector, I need your help.  _

After waiting several more minutes with no response, Sarah decided to explore the RPG site further. She scanned the list of names of players that were currently online. All the names were connected in some way to Arthurian mythology: Sir Kay, Sir Gawain, Sir Elyan, Tristan. A name caught Sarah’s eye and she was about to click on it when Toby’s computer pinged again. She eagerly answered it, expecting to hear again from Sir Ector.

_ -Hello, Sarah Williams. _

Sarah stared down at the message and the name attached to it -the one that had caught her attention, Sir Percival.

_ -Who is this?  _ she typed in response. 

_ -Have you forgotten me already? Hardly a kind thing to do since I so gallantly rescued you from the jungle. _

_ -Percy? _

_ -It’s Sir Percival on here, my dear. So glad to talk to you again. _

Sarah’s heart sank into her stomach. There had been something more than a little off about the man she’d met in the Yucatan. Knowing that he was connected to Toby’s role-playing group sent a shudder of dread down her spine. Shaking off her intrepidation, Sarah typed out a to-the-point message.

_ -What have you done with my brother? _

_ -I’ve done nothing with him. Young Lancelot joined us of his own free will. _

_ -Where is he?  _ Sarah demanded to know. She could feel her fury rising at the thought of her brother being lured into the company of someone as sketchy as Percy.

_ -He is with me and is quite safe. _

Sarah paused and drew in a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. 

_ -Are you working for the goblin king? _

_ -Oh no, my dear. Rather the opposite. I detest the goblin king. Which is why I summoned your brother and the others on a special mission. We’re going to destroy the goblin kingdom and its ruler. _

Shocked at Percy’s admission, Sarah sat back. Percy was out for revenge? The implication was serious and Sarah typed another question, not knowing whether she really wanted to know the answer. 

_ -Why? _

She waited, her heart pounding in her chest, for the reply. 

_ -He stole my sister, Marguerite. She was nine years old. I was thirteen. I didn’t mean what I said and he knew it. He tricked me and I lost her. I  _ **_will_ ** _ get her back. _

Sarah let out a sigh and shook her head. She understood. The same thing had almost happened to her thirteen years earlier. It had taken every bit of wit and skill and strength for her to make it to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City in time. She had never really considered before that there had been others before or after her that had failed. It was a thought she avoided since it made her uncomfortably aware of what may have happened if she’d made one wrong choice. If perhaps she had hesitated in that ballroom for only a moment more…

She shook the thought away and looked back at her conversation with Percy. He had probably been carrying his guilt of having failed his sister for decades. 

_ -I’m sorry about Marguerite,  _ Sarah typed.  _ But I fail to see how kidnapping my brother will help you get her back. _

_ -I told you. Young Lancelot hasn’t been kidnapped. He joined us freely. He believes in this quest and has sworn to help us win back our lost ones. _

_ -Us? _

_ -Yes. There are many of us now, thanks to this RPG. I used it as a sort of beacon to those who, like me, have lost loved ones to the goblin king. We shared our stories and finally made up our minds to take action. The goblin king must be stopped. _

_ -But why Toby? He doesn’t know anything about this. He just thinks it’s a story. _

_ -Yes, but you and I both know better, don’t we, Sarah? You won. You beat the labyrinth and defeated the goblin king. You won your brother back.  _

_ -How do you know that? _

_ -Toby told me the story that you told him. Like you said, he thinks it’s only a story, but I know the truth. And I need your help, Sarah. Help me defeat the goblin king and get my sister back. Join our quest as our paladin. As the Champion, surely you possess both magic and tactical skill. _

_ -I don’t have either. What you’re planning is impossible and dangerous. This isn’t a game, Percy. Please send Toby home. He’s just a kid. _

_ -Yes, it would be terrible if something were to happen to him. I would think you would want to join us in order to ensure your brother’s safety. _

_ -If you think threatening me will make me join you, you are mistaken. I’m going to go to the police. _

_ -Do what you will. I’m sure they’ll believe your story.  _

_ -Please, Percy. I’m begging you. Send Toby home. _

_ -I can’t, Sarah. He’s our key back into the Underground. If you won’t help us, this conversation is over. I wouldn’t get mixed up in this any further if I were you. As you said, it’s dangerous. I certainly wouldn’t want to see you get hurt. _

_ -Percy _

_ -Goodbye Sarah. I’ll give your regards to the goblin king. _

Percy’s message box disappeared and Sarah let out a shriek of frustration. Percy was insane and he was going to get her brother into trouble. Or worse. 

Sarah got up from the desk and began to pace around Toby’s messy room. Surely a band of mortals couldn’t hope to defeat the goblin king. She had beaten him, yes, but not destroyed him as Percy seemed determined to do. Could a being like the goblin king even be killed? She shuddered at the thought. The goblin king was a devious bastard at best, she didn’t think he deserved to die. After all, he had done only what they had asked. And in her case, he had given Toby back as promised when she beat the labyrinth.  __

Sarah paused in her pacing and let out a long sigh. She knew what she had to do, but she wouldn’t like it. Still, if Toby was in danger, she would do anything to save him. Even if that meant enlisting the help of her former nemesis.

She left Toby’s room and slipped quietly down the hall to what had been her childhood bedroom. It had been converted into a guest bedroom not long after she had gotten married. The toys and juvenile books (save one) had been moved to the attic, passed down to Toby, or put into the charity box. Her bed was still there, but the coverlet had been changed and the billowing canopy removed. Her vanity still sat in its spot near the window, but its square mirror was now empty of her photographs and collected trinkets. 

Sarah sat down at the bare vanity and, as calmly as she could, addressed the mirror.

“Goblin King… I need you.” 

* * *

Percy slammed his laptop shut and pushed away from the desk with a huff.  _ “How dare Sarah Williams refuse to help!”  _ he inwardly fumed. He had thought she would jump at the chance to take down the goblin king once and for all. He had even brought her brother into the mix to...persuade her. And she still wouldn’t budge.

“I don’t understand,” he grumbled aloud.

The young boy on the sofa turned his attention away from the television and looked at him. 

“What’s wrong?” asked Toby. 

“It’s nothing. I just thought I could enlist another person in our quest, but she refused,” Percy answered. 

“She? Ew! Why would you ask a girl to join our quest? Girls are stupid,” Toby cried, making a disgusted face.

“Not this girl,” muttered Percy. He shrugged and sat down by Toby on the sofa. “It’s no matter anyway, Lancelot. Now that we have you, we have everything we need to complete our quest. Especially since I have this.” He picked up a long wooden box from the sofa table and opened it. Inside, an ornate steel dagger rested on a bed of burgundy crushed velvet. Its handle was carved from ebony and capped with a silver filigree guard. The blade was slightly curved, with a jagged edge on one side meant for ripping and shredding. Toby stared at the wicked blade and swallowed hard.

“I… I think I need to go home,” he said quietly.

Percy turned and glared at him. “You’re not thinking of deserting now, are you?” he growled. 

“My parents are probably worried about me and… well, this game is getting a little too--”

“Too what?” demanded Percy. “Too real?” He leaned down into Toby’s face and laughed, a throaty cackle that made Toby’s stomach turn. 

“Your sister didn’t tell you the whole truth about the goblin kingdom, Lancelot, but I will. I’ll tell you everything, and if you still want to go home after that, I’ll take you back myself, deal?”

“What do you know about my sister except what I’ve told you? That stuff about the labyrinth is just a story, Percy.”

“Is it now?” Percy sneered. “You have the crystal, don’t you?”

Toby nodded and pulled the shimmering orb from his pocket. He didn’t know where it had come from, but he’d had it as long as he could remember. He loved to take it out and play with it, but had strangely always felt the need to hide it from his family, especially Sarah. Toby rolled the crystal around in his palm. Over the years he’d gotten quite good at passing the crystal over his knuckles from one hand to the other. He could roll it off his shoulder and down his arm, popping it up from his elbow and catching it behind his back. The crystal danced lightly over his fingertips as Percy watched.

“Look into the crystal, Toby and tell me what you see,” he commanded. 

Toby held up the crystal to the light and squinted into it. Swirls and sparkles floated in its center, formless. However, as he watched the swirls began to take shape. Toby’s eyes widened as the shapes sharpened and he took in the scene playing out inside the crystal. Tears sprang to his eyes and he shook his head, trying to believe that what he was seeing was not true. But he knew that it was. The hand holding the crystal dropped to his side and Toby stared at the floor.

“You understand now, don’t you, Lancelot?” Percy asked gently.

Toby didn’t look up, but nodded. 

“What did the crystal show you?”

Toby finally raised his head to look at Percy and the older man could see that the boy was desperately trying to hold back tears. 

“Sarah…” Toby said in barely a whisper. “She wished me away to the goblins.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be too hard on the Williams parents about not checking on Toby's internet activity. This is set in the good ol' days when the internet was mainly for playing games or visiting chat rooms and no one worried about online predators or The Dark Web. Besides, parents these days are still relatively naive when it comes to their kiddos and social media. 
> 
> Special thanks for Kudos from: bowie_queen, YuuriQueen, Kitomi, briar_rose, VickyOcean, Margot1972, Rayac, as well as a couple of Guests. 
> 
> Thanks for Bookmarking: Lvorbeck, spartiechic, blackhorseandthecherrytree, briar_rose, and Sourlander
> 
> Rayac, Margot1972, and bowie_queen: You were all wise to be suspicious of Percy. He's a few french fries short of a Happy Meal. And there are few things more dangerous than a villain who think's he's the hero.


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah felt the shift in the air- a sharp, tingle-inducing ripple across the ether that echoed of mysterious and ancient magic- and knew that the goblin king had appeared in the room even before she turned around. Shifting in her seat at the vanity, she looked toward the bed and saw him sprawled casually upon it, his lean legs propped up on the headboard and his head cushioned by one of Karen’s grandmother’s quilts. He was dressed in dark leather from head to toe, with black gloves on his hands and black boots on his feet. 

He turned his head and gazed around the room and frowned.

“You’ve redecorated,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

“This isn’t my bedroom anymore, Your Majesty,” Sarah told him as she got up from the vanity. “I haven’t lived here in over ten years.”

The goblin king sat up and moved toward where she stood and Sarah instinctively backed away from his approach. 

He stopped and gave her a pointed smile. “Then,” he purred, “I take it that I wasn’t invited here for…  _ pleasurable  _ purposes.” The way he emphasized the word “pleasurable” made Sarah’s stomach flutter.

“No, I wasn’t inviting you here for-- for--” Sarah stammered, scowling. “I certainly don’t want to--”

The goblin king smiled again and took another swift step toward her, bringing him almost chest-to-chest with her. He looked down into her eyes and moved to ghost a gloved hand across the side of her cheek. “Sarah, your summons did say that you  _ need  _ me.”

This time she didn’t back down, snapping her head up defiantly and staring him straight in the eye. “I do need you, Goblin King, but not for… that.” 

He chuckled lightly as she finally moved away, eyeing him from the side. 

“Honestly,” she grumbled as she began pacing around the room. “Do you always have to be so smarmy? Does everything have to be about sex with you?”

“Whatever makes you think I was talking about sex, Sarah?” He couldn’t help but laugh as she froze in her pacing and gazed at him, puzzled. He continued, cocking his head to one side. “Though I must admit that I particularly enjoy amorous entanglements, there are plenty of other activities that I find  _ pleasurable. _ ” 

Sarah remained speechless, inwardly cursing the fact that his words were having a rather profound effect on her, namely in her nether regions. He continued, circling her slowly. “I think, Sarah dear, that  _ you _ jumped to a conclusion in this case. That makes me wonder what kind of sordid space I occupy in that lovely head of yours, you naughty girl.”

He turned and gave her a wicked smirk and her hands clenched into tight fists.

“Stop it, Goblin King,” she commanded. “I don’t have time for your suggestive smirking or your innuendo. My brother is in trouble.”

The goblin king’s leer disappeared and was replaced with a deep glower. “He’s still missing?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sarah told him. “I think I know who he’s with, but I don’t know how to get to him.” She paused, weighing what she should say. She still didn’t trust the goblin monarch any further than she could throw him, but he was probably her best, if not only, choice for help in saving her brother. 

“There’s a role-playing group,” she began. “It’s online and I have to admit, at first I thought you had created it as a new way to lure people into the Labyrinth. But I talked to the real person behind it. A man named Percy. I had actually met him before. He picked me up in the jungle just after I… uh,  _ spoke _ to you in the cenote. There was something strange about him-- Later, he told me he used the game to find others who had wished children away and failed to get them back. He…” She paused, feeling her emotions welling up: anger over Percy’s manipulation of her brother and guilt over her own mistake thirteen years earlier. She supposed that guilt could have driven her to madness too if, like Percy, she’d failed to get her brother back.

She turned to the goblin king, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. “He’s crazy,” she told him. He plans to try to go back to the Underground to get his sister back. He seems to have some plan of vengeance against you too, Your Majesty.”

“What does this have to do with your brother?” the goblin king asked.

“Toby is with him. He doesn’t know the truth about what happened. He thinks it’s all just a game. Percy told me that Toby was his key to getting back to the Goblin Kingdom. He asked me to help him and implied that something bad might happen to Toby when I refused…” Sarah’s voice trailed off and she sank down onto the bed. 

The goblin king sighed and settled onto the bed next to her. “Take a breath, Sarah,” he said gently. “First of all, if Toby is the key to getting this Percy fellow back into the Underground, I think it unlikely that he would harm him.” 

Beside him, Sarah relaxed a bit. It made sense. If what Percy had said was true, he wouldn’t hurt the one person who could get him to where he wanted to go. At least not until he got what he wanted.

“Secondly,” the goblin king continued, “Even if Toby can get Percy into my kingdom, there’s little harm they can do. Not everyone is capable of wreaking havoc across the Goblin Kingdom like Sarah Williams and her merry band of misfits.” He paused, waiting expectantly for her to argue and fuss, but she only furrowed her brow and crossed her arms over her chest. “Your brother will be safe and Percy will be dealt with as well. I’ll see to that as soon as they arrive,” he continued with a shrug.

“You’ll send Toby back right away? No tricks?”

“I swear it,” the goblin king answered. He raised his right hand and made a criss-cross over his chest with the left to emphasize his oath. It wasn’t an empty gesture, Sarah knew from years of reading and research. His kind never took such matters lightly. The use of double-talk and finding loopholes were trademarks of the Fae, but the outright breaking of an oath was an offense deemed beyond reprehensible, and cause for serious punishment. 

“That’s what I was hoping for, Your Majesty,” Sarah told him with a deep sigh of relief.. “And I appreciate your help, but I was wondering…”

“What?” asked the goblin king, raising an eyebrow.

Sarah let out a little sigh and cast her eyes to the side. “Percy is a really creepy guy, but I kind of understand his desperation. I almost lost Toby. I would have been devastated and I never would have been able to live with myself if I had failed. I imagine Percy has unbearable guilt over what happened.” She paused and looked up at him. “Is there any way that you could give Marguerite back?”

The goblin king’s odd eyes widened at the mention of the girl’s name. 

“Maggs,” he said softly, as if to himself. “No, that’s impossible.”

“I know there are rules and such, Goblin King, but can’t you make an exception?” Sarah argued. “He was just a kid and didn’t mean what he said. He’s regretted it every day since…”

The goblin king got up from the bed and paced a few steps away before turning back to her.

“Sarah,” he said, “I think there’s something you should know about Percy.”

* * *

  
  


“Give me the crystal, Lancelot,” Percy commanded.

Toby remained still and silent, the crystal held tightly in his clenched fist. 

“Toby,” Percy called to him again. “I know you’re angry. You have a right to be. But use your righteous anger to help me in this quest. Forget about your sister.”

Toby’s grip tightened around the crystal at the mention of Sarah. 

_ “Sarah,” _ thought Toby. The person who seemed to know him best. The person he looked up to the most. She had wished him away. Had asked the goblins to come and get him. And they had. All the snippets of dreams he had had over the years suddenly made sense: leathery faces peering out at him from nooks and crevices, strange music coming from everywhere and nowhere, a curved throne in a dirty and crowded castle, impossible stairways that defied gravity, and in the heart of it all-- the goblin king. He had terrified him at first. He carried an aura of power and potential menace, yet there had been a childlike quality about him as well. The goblin king had played with him and sang and danced with him… just like Sarah had said in the stories.

Toby’s fury returned at the thought. All those years of stories and Sarah had been lying. 

_ “It’s not fair!” _

“Give me the crystal, Lancelot,” Percy repeated, snapping him out of his dark thoughts. “I, like your sister, did something rash and foolish. Your sister continues to be a fool, but I want to do something to make amends. But I can’t do it without you or the crystal. Help me, Lancelot. Please.” 

He reached out his hand toward the crystal and Toby nodded as a slow smile spread across his face.

* * *

Sarah listened as the goblin king laid out the rules governing the Labyrinth and the wishing-away and winning-back of children. He paced back and forth across the room, his leather ensemble creaking as he walked.

“Anyone who wishes away a child is given the option of running to win them back or exchanging them for a dream crystal,” he told her. “In your case, you chose to run the labyrinth and managed to complete it in the allotted time, thus your brother was returned to you.” He paused for a moment and studied his gloves, seeming to mull his words over in his mind. 

“If you had chosen to run the labyrinth and had lost, you would have also lost all memory of your brother,” he continued at last. 

“Really?” Sarah asked, raising her dark eyebrows. 

“Those who run and fail have no memory of the event or of the child they wished away,” the goblin king told her. “Those who trade the child for their dreams… they remember everything. Forever.”

He paused and let his words sink in.

“But that means--” Sarah’s head snapped up as she understood what he was telling her. “Percy never tried to get Marguerite back. He never ran the Labyrinth. He exchanged his sister for his dreams!” She sat back on the bed, deflated and horrified.

“That’s correct,” the goblin king answered. “He was given the choice and opted to take his dreams over his sister, ridiculous as they were.”

“What were his dreams?” Sarah asked, not sure she really wanted to know. 

“The typical human fair,” the goblin king said with a dismissive wave, “Money and power. I granted him what he wanted and took Maggs back with me.”

“She’s… a goblin?” 

“Yes. And she’ll stay that way forever. Even if Percy gets through the labyrinth and storms the castle, Maggs will remain a goblin.”

“Because you can’t turn her back or you won’t?” Sarah asked, eyeing him warily. 

The goblin king moved toward the bed and leaned down over where she sat, bringing her face to face with the curved medallion that hung over the vee of pale skin exposed beneath his dark shirt. “What’s said is said and what’s done is done,” he told her. “Asking me to turn her back is the same as me asking you to unbake a cake or unlive a day of your life.” He paused, leaning in closer and relishing the way Sarah fought to resist shuddering as his cool breath played across her neck and collarbone. “Maggs can no more regain her humanity than you can regain your virginity,” he said in almost a whisper.

Sarah opened her mouth to protest his choice of words, but thought better of it. He was trying to rile her up again and she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. She sat in silence with him looming over her for several uncomfortable moments before she spoke again.

“There was a very detailed picture of the Labyrinth on Percy’s RPG website,” she told the goblin king. “If he didn’t run, how does he know what it looks like?”

“I showed you the Labyrinth, didn’t it?” he answered, finally drawing back. “Even before you fully made your choice. I do the same with all wishers. It’s part of my duty to show them what they’re up against, and for a great many, it’s rather effective.”

Sarah nodded, remembering the panic she had felt gazing for the first time over the rambling maze. She had pretended to be unshaken by it’s huge expanse.

_ “It doesn’t look that far,”  _ she remembered telling the goblin king. He had then appeared beside her suddenly, making her jump at his close proximity as well as from the tingle of his breath against her cheek.

Sarah licked her lips absently and stood to face him. “One thing,” she said. “One more question before you poof away to stop Percy and my brother from getting themselves killed. Why did you kiss me in the cenote?”

The goblin king grinned. “You wouldn’t accept my help, so I gave you my protection,” he answered. “Just a small bit, really, and only temporary. But it seems to have worked.”

“Oh?” asked Sarah.

“You said Percy picked you up in the jungle just after we spoke.”

“Yes--” Sarah's heart gave a sudden shudder. Percy, the insane man who had her brother and was hell-bent on destroying the goblin kingdom had had her in his vehicle in the middle of nowhere and had just driven her to the village as she asked. He’d had plenty of opportunity to stuff her into the back of his SUV or put a gun to her head and force her to come with him…

“I… I… Thank you,” Sarah managed to stammer. 

The goblin king stepped toward her, a cunning and suggestive comment on his lips, but before he could give it voice, a whisper of magic swept across his deeper consciousness. He froze and shook his head, disbelieving what he was hearing. It couldn’t be--

_ “I wish…”  _ the voice called out over the veil of magic, prickling his skin as his power surged to answer it.

_ “I wish I were the king of the goblins and the ruler of the Labyrinth right now!” _

The goblin king stumbled forward as his magic heaved and dispersed upward toward the ether, fracturing into glittering fragments and shattered sparkles of crystal. He clutched at his chest as his sigil, the symbol of his power and authority over the Labyrinth and the inhabitants of the Underground slipped between his gloved fingers and vanished. His nerve endings burned with pain as his power was pressed and squeezed from every part of his being, leaving him empty and gasping. 

“No, you fools!” he groaned before collapsing in a heap at Sarah’s feet.

* * *

  
  


  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Glinda voice* Are you a good wish or a bad wish? What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. 
> 
> Speaking of comments, I am so glad you guys appreciate the concept of the RPG. After some Googling I was unable to find a true online Labyrinth RPG, but I did find this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robwieland/2020/04/06/outwit-the-goblin-king-with-the-new-labyrinth-role-playing-game/#4eb3d6df719c  
> Looks like it could be fun.
> 
> The Goblin King's first line in this chapter is lifted directly from the "Doctor Who" universe where it is used as a sort of running gag between different regenerations of the Doctor. 
> 
> Thanks for Kudos from: Sourlander, Babygotback, and DenaliWahine I appreciate your vote of confidence and will do my best to not disappoint.


	4. Chapter 4

A little groan escaped the lips of the prostrate goblin king and Sarah quickly stood and leaned over where he lay haphazardly draped across the bed. For someone who seemed so lithe and lean, it had taken all of Sarah’s strength to lift him off the floor where he’d fallen and up onto the mattress. She’d tried to check his pulse, pressing two fingers against the slit of skin between the cuff of his dark shirt and the edge of his glove. Unfortunately, her medical training was less than helpful since she had no idea what the Fae considered a normal pulse rate. 

“Goblin King,” she whispered to him. “Can you hear me? Are you okay?”

He shifted slightly and groaned again, wincing in pain. 

“Can you open your eyes and look at me?” Sarah asked.

The goblin king’s eyes fluttered open for a millisecond before snapping closed again. 

“Oh gods,” he moaned.

“What can I do?” Sarah asked him. “Are you in pain?”

“Excruciating.”

“What happened?”

The goblin king didn’t answer, but rolled slightly to one side in an attempt to raise himself up. He fell back onto the mattress with a grunt and lifted a trembling hand to his face. 

“I think,” he panted, “I’ve been deposed.” 

“What?” exclaimed Sarah. “What are you talking about?”

The goblin king finally managed to open his eyes and looked up at her. “Someone made a wish,” he told her in barely a whisper. “Perhaps a good wish, maybe a bad one. I haven’t decided.”

“I think you might be delirious, Your Majesty,” Sarah told him.

He reached his arms up to her and she grasped them, helping him to slowly raise himself up into a sitting position. He let out a long dejected sigh. 

“I don’t think that title applies to me anymore,” he said glumly. He stared down at his gloved hands as if they were unfamiliar, alien to him. “It appears that someone has used a wish to usurp my throne and my authority.”

Shocked at his words, Sarah sat back and studied him. He flexed his fingers and flicked his wrist before leaning back against the pillow with a grunt of frustration. “I am powerless,” he said, looking up at the ceiling. 

Sarah was silent for a moment, mulling over what he’d told her. “How could someone just wish away your throne and power like that?” she asked.

The goblin king’s eyes returned to her. “With a very powerful magic,” he replied. “A magic normally reserved for the most earnest dreams. A magic made stronger by deep desire and intense emotion.”

His shoulders slumped against the pillow and his eyes darkened and Sarah shuddered as the air around them took on a profound chill. Where bright and warm magic had surrounded them only moments earlier, now an aura of cold emptiness settled over the room.

“Who could have done this?” she asked. 

The goblin king’s face twisted into a snarl. “My guess is that it was your jungle pal, Percy.”

“But how?” questioned Sarah. “Where could he have gotten the power to make such a wish?”

The goblin king remained silent and looked away and she could sense that he was holding something back.

“Goblin King…” she coaxed.

He looked back at her and sighed. “Percy did say that your brother was his key to getting back to the Underground.”

Sarah shook her head and moved away from the bed, pacing. “That’s impossible,” she told him. “Toby doesn’t even know that you or the Labyrinth are real. He certainly doesn’t have any sort of magic.”

“Sarah, that’s not entirely… accurate.”

Sarah whirled around to face him. “What. Did. You. Do?” she demanded, her expression darkening to one of intense fury. She was too angry to be even mildly pleased when he slightly recoiled.

“I gave him a gift,” the goblin king admitted finally. “Just before our final confrontation. Not quite like the one I offered you, but powerful nonetheless.”

“Goblin King, how could you? He was just a baby!”

The goblin king swung his legs over the bed with a pained wince and moved to stand. “Sarah,” he began, “I knew I was beaten and I only meant to leave the little fellow something lovely and special. He was rather charming and I found myself quite taken with him.”

“And what?” Sarah growled. “Were you planning to make him “taken” with you later?” She stomped over to where he leaned, struggling to right himself against one of the bedposts. “I should have known this was all your doing.”

“Sarah,” the goblin king panted as he heaved himself up to a standing position. “This was never my intention. The crystal was only a gift, meant to bring a little magic to his pitiful, mundane existence.”

“Ah yes,” Sarah sneered. “I had forgotten about your  _ generosity. _ Well, look what it’s done, Goblin King.” She swept her arms wide before crossing them angrily over her chest. “I hope you’re happy.”

“Do you think this has no effect on me?” he snarled back. “I’ve lost everything. My kingdom has been yanked out from under me, my power wrenched out of every cell of my body…” He paused and passed a shaky hand over his brow, his chest heaving with the exertion. “I think we’re fighting the wrong enemy here, Sarah,” he said softly. 

Sarah turned away, both in anger and in an effort to avoid the unnerving sight of the goblin king looking so weak and defeated. He was right, she knew. Blaming him was not going to help them save Toby. Still, if he hadn’t interfered, neither of them would be in this position. 

“This crystal you gave Toby,” she said without turning back to face him, “You think somehow Percy got hold of it and used it to take your power through a wish?”

“Yes,” replied the goblin king.

“What exactly was the wish?”

“He wished to be the king of the goblins and the ruler of the Labyrinth. Apparently, he knows his right words.”

“Why would he wish for that?” Sarah asked, finally turning toward him. “Why would  _ anyone _ wish for that?” She hadn’t meant it as an insult and immediately regretted her choice of words when a look of dejection passed over the goblin king’s face and his eyes looked toward the floor.

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “Percy has a habit of making incredibly foolish wishes.” 

Silence fell between them for several moments as they both came to grips with their current predicament. Sarah was still inwardly fuming, but reasoned that staying angry at the goblin king wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Percy was the real adversary. He had taken something of great value from each of them and he had to be stopped. 

“What do we do?” she asked quietly. 

The goblin king lifted his head and stared up at her, his jaw set. “We have to get back to the goblin kingdom before that idiot destroys everything.”

* * *

Nearly half an hour passed before the goblin king was steady enough on his feet to make it down the hall to Toby’s room. Even then, he had to lean slightly on Sarah’s shoulder as they shuffled down the darkened hallway. Robert and Karen Williams had already gone to bed and Sarah knew that waking them would lead to way too many questions regarding the strange man who was creeping about their house with her at eleven o’clock at night. Toby’s room was directly across the hall from theirs and she struggled to quietly turn the doorknob while keeping the shaky-legged king of the goblins on his feet. Once inside the boy’s room, the goblin king looked around, wrinkling his nose at the disorder and smell.

“Don’t say a word, Your Majesty,” Sarah said, pointing a finger at his chest. “I seem to recall a rather disgusting throne room that smelled of stale alcohol and was infested with chickens.”

“Hmph,” said the goblin king. “That’s what happens when you have goblins for housekeepers. And I do wish you would stop calling me Your Majesty or Goblin King since I am neither. Besides, I have a name.” 

“Fine,” said Sarah. “What is it?”

The not-goblin-king took an unsteady step back and looked hard at her, raising an eyebrow and cocking his head slightly. 

“I know Hogwash told you my name. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already.”

“That was thirteen years ago.”

“Tsk tsk,” he clucked, shaking his head. “I’m a bit insulted, Sarah. But I’ll refresh your pitiful mortal memory. My name is Jareth.”

_ Jareth.  _ Of course she remembered. She had never been able to forget that name and had always been careful to never say it out loud, even to Toby. When she told him the story of the Labyrinth, she only ever referred to its ruler as the Goblin King. Names were a risky business. 

“All right… Jareth,” she said hesitantly. “We should gather some supplies. You look around in here for whatever might be helpful. I’m going down to my car for my suitcase. I’ll also go to the kitchen to grab some food-- Wait, do you eat?”

“Of course I eat,” Jareth snapped. “What do you think I am, a wispy sprite from one of your storybooks?”

“I was only asking,” Sarah shot back through gritted teeth. She turned on her heel and left the room trying not to stomp as she made her way down the hall and stairs and out the front door. 

“Fucking Fae with their fucking magic and stupid fucking noses in everyone else’s fucking business,” she cursed as she closed the front door behind her and stalked out to the driveway where she’d parked her car. She’d gone directly to her parents’ house from the airport and hadn’t even bothered to bring in her battered suitcase. 

“Why can’t they just mind their own fucking business instead of granting stupid fucking wishes that aren’t really meant and only lead to really bad fucking things?!” she continued in her tirade as she yanked open her trunk and dragged her suitcase out, letting it hit the pavement with a thunk. Grabbing it by the handle, she lugged it back up the driveway and into the house. She left the large case at the bottom of the stairs and made her way to the kitchen, still softly cursing.

Sarah quietly rummaged through the cabinets, looking for quest-worthy food items. She grabbed a few apples from the bowl Karen had placed on the table, a box of granola bars from the pantry, a handful of Toby’s favorite beef jerky sticks, and several slices of bread. She loaded all of the food into a brown paper bag before filling two reusable bottles with water. With supplies in hand, she moved back out toward the stairs and began heaving her suitcase up to her brother’s room. 

Jareth was in the far corner of the room when she entered, brandishing a sword Toby had purchased at a fantasy convention the previous spring. He weighed it in his hand before swinging it about in a swift circle. “Not the finest craftsmanship,” he told her, “but it will do.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and set down her armload of supplies. “Glad something meets your approval,” she huffed.

Jareth turned to her and frowned. “Sarah,” he said after a brief pause. “I want to apologize for my… impatience earlier. I was unnecessarily harsh to you.”

She waved him off. 

“It’s--” she found herself unable to say “fine.” It wasn’t fine. Rudeness was never acceptable. 

“It’s understandable,” she answered instead. “We’ve both had a really rough day. I’m stressed and worried and jet-lagged and you’ve just had your kingdom usurped and you look like you’ve been hit by a truck… Let’s just try not to take it out on each other, okay?”

Jareth nodded and sheathed the sword. He studied its faux leather lacings for a moment before looking back up at her, a playful glint returning to his odd eyes. “Do I really look that bad?” 

Sarah stopped rifling in her suitcase and looked up at him. He was rather rumpled and worn around the edges. His face, normally relaxed and regal, was drawn tight, his skin a bit ashy. Still, even as he stood in her brother’s disaster of a room in his wrinkled black ensemble, wielding a cheap sword that was most likely made in China, he was more than intimidating. 

_ “And dammit, he’s still beautiful,”  _ rose the unbidden thought from the darker recesses of Sarah’s brain. 

“Shut up,” she muttered. She only realized she’d said the words aloud when Jareth shot her a quizzical look. “I mean-- I’ve seen you looking better,” she stammered. 

_ “Yep,”  _ echoed her traitorous brain.  _ “In a jeweled coat and soft white gloves and blue-streaked hair…” _

“How do you feel?” she asked, not so much out of concern as to make her inner dialogue clam up. 

“Better,” Jareth answered. “The pain has subsided and my strength is returning.”

“But no magic?” 

He flexed his fingers up and down. “No,” he answered with a resigned sigh.

Not knowing what to say in response, Sarah busied herself pulling items of clothing from her suitcase: a hooded sweatshirt, another pair of jeans, a plaid button-down shirt and her trusty hiking-boots. She stealthily grabbed a few pairs of panties as well, shoving them into the sweatshirt before Jareth had a chance to get a glimpse of her underthings. She looked up at him again and pursed her lips.

“You’ll need some extra clothes too, Gob-- I mean, Jareth.” She stood and made her way to Toby’s dresser and began pulling things from the messy drawers. Toby was tall, but still several inches shorter than Jareth. Still, she pulled out some loose trousers and a pair of dark sweatpants as well as a few shirts. She didn’t bother with underwear. Jareth would just have to make do with whatever he had. 

“Thank you,” he said beside her and she jumped a little. Goblin King or not, he still had the power to startle her. 

“No problem, she told him. She looked around Toby’s cluttered room for a gym bag or backpack.

“I wonder if I could get Lee to bring over my overnight bag,” she thought aloud.

“Lee?” asked Jareth, raising a golden eyebrow in amusement. 

“My ex-husband,” Sarah began to explain. She stopped cold, realizing that the explanation would only lead to more questions. “Never mind,” she told him a little too abruptly. “I think there’s a duffle bag in the hall closet.”

She didn’t miss his smirk as she turned to retrieve the bag from its shelf in the linen closet and she chose to ignore the fact that he still wore it when she returned and plunked the bag down on the floor among their collection of supplies. She was busily stuffing the clothing and other items into the duffle bag when a thought occurred to her and she paused.

“If you don’t have any magic, how are we going to get back to the goblin kingdom?” she asked.

“The same way you always got there, Sarah,” he replied with a knowing smile.

* * *

The mirror. For years it had been her portal back and forth between the magical veil to visit her friends or to just roam the glittering pathways of the Labyrinth whenever she needed to get away from life in the mundane world. Over those years it became easier and easier to slip in under that blazing rust-colored sky and lose herself to the wonders of the land beyond the sandy hills. But, she had noticed, it became harder and harder to go back home. Each time she would stand at the top of the hill looking down on the twisting maze and the looming castle beyond, she could feel the whispers of magic calling her, beckoning her to stay. 

That was why she’d finally made the heartbreaking decision to never cross over into the Underground again. Her friends had understood. Ludo had openly wept while Sir Didymus was gracious and kind. Hoggle had been quiet, and she’d known he was hurt, but he’d put on a brave face and let her hug him goodbye. She hadn’t seen any of them in the ten years that followed.

Sarah gulped hard, trying to swallow the heavy lump that had formed in her throat. She and Jareth stood in front of the empty vanity and its bare mirror, Jareth with the sword slung over his shoulder and Sarah firmly gripping the duffle bag. They only had to step forward and the mirror would open, letting them sink into the rippling reflection and across the veil into the land of magic and goblins and fairies and dwarves. The land now in the power of a madman who was also in possession of her brother. She looked to Jareth. 

_ “I'm scared,”  _ she wanted to say, but didn’t. She told herself that she held her tongue because she didn’t want Jareth to know she was afraid. That she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her shaken, even by a common enemy. But, looking up at him, she understood the truth of her silence. She didn’t  _ need  _ to say it. He understood and he felt it too. They were both at the mercy of a journey of unknowns: unknown dangers, unknown challenges, unknown outcomes. 

Jareth took the duffle bag from her right hand and slung it over his shoulder with the sword. He smiled and placed his hand in hers as together, they stepped into the warping mirror. 

* * *

“Sarah and the former king have arrived on the outskirts of the Labyrinth,” a voice spoke from the shadows of the darkened throne room.

The goblin king sighed and turned on his throne, letting one leg dangle over the curved edge.

“Your Majesty--”

“They are powerless,” the goblin king hissed. “They won’t make it through my Labyrinth, and even if they do, we’ll be waiting for them. They’ll never make it back out.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” 

When he was left alone again, the goblin king flicked his wrist and tried to pull a crystal from the air. It materialized as a dull and deformed thing and he tossed it away in disgust. It didn't matter. The Labyrinth was under his control and answered him. He felt its tug on his psyche as it dug through his most terrifying memories and most horrific nightmares and shaped itself around them. 

Sarah and the former king of the goblins were walking into a hellscape. And they would never make it out alive.

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys seemed to really like the twist in the previous chapter. *steeples fingers evilly* Just wait, my lovelies! There will be more, mwahahaha! 
> 
> Please continue to let me know what you think about these chapters. I really appreciate your comments and feedback. 
> 
> If you're wondering when Jareth gave Toby the crystal, think back to the "Escher Room" when a shiny crystal orb bounced up the stairs and into the chubby little hands of a babe in stripey pyjamas.


	5. Chapter 5

“Oh my god.” The words rushed out as a gasp as Sarah stood atop the sandy hill that looked down over the labyrinth. At her side, Jareth was silent, his eyes sweeping across what should have been comforting and familiar.

Sarah’s heart sank in her chest as she gazed over the land before her. The fairy garden, once tended dutifully by Hoggle was gone, replaced by a barren plain of gnarled vines and twisting thorns. The gate into the labyrinth was massive, crossed by pointed metal bars and flanked by enormous pillars topped by gruesome gargoyles. The labyrinth itself had changed as well. The glittering walls she had once roamed were now slick and black and their tops were covered in curls of vicious razor wire. 

Beyond the twisting black maze, the castle loomed, shrouded in shadow. Spired towers rose up like menacing spears from the turrets and battlements. Lightning streaked across the gray-green sky behind the castle, making it look even more haunted and foreboding. 

“I should have warned you,” Jareth said, still looking out across the contorted landscape. “The labyrinth changes with its ruler. It shapes itself continually to reflect its Master’s thoughts and moods.”

Sarah swallowed hard. “If that’s the case, I think we know what Percy is thinking and feeling right now,” she told him. “I just hope Toby’s all right.”

Jareth turned to face her. “Percy will keep your brother safe,” he said. “He is his bargaining chip after all.”

“What more does Percy need to bargain for?” asked Sarah. “He already has your power and throne.”

“While he may have been able to shape the labyrinth to his whims, his magic will be erratic at best. He needs someone to show him how to use it.”

“You?”

“Precisely.”

“So you think he’ll use my brother to try to force you to teach him how to use his stolen magic?”

Jareth nodded and Sarah let out a deep breath. The thought of her brother being held for ransom made her chest ache. 

“Sarah,” Jareth said, laying a hand on her arm. She flinched but didn’t pull away. “This is a good thing,” he continued. “Toby is safe as long as we remain just out of Percy’s grasp.”

“I guess so,” Sarah agreed, though she still hated it. As long as they could avoid capture or worse and make it to the castle on their own terms, Toby would be relatively safe.

Jareth reached out a gloved hand to her and she took it, letting him lead her down the steep sandy path toward the desert plain below. They picked their way along the trail, avoiding the knotted clumps of thorns and the jagged rocks, finally arriving at the enormous gate to the labyrinth. Sarah looked around at the scraggly vegetation and dried vines, hoping for a glimpse of Hoggle.

“Hagrid and the others have hopefully had sense enough to go into hiding,” said Jareth. 

“Do you think they’re safe?” Sarah asked. 

“Percy never ran the labyrinth and knows nothing of its inhabitants. According to what you’ve said he seems to be more preoccupied with the goblins.”

“Yes,” answered Sarah. “He’s intent on finding his sister and changing her back.”

“Then let’s hope he hasn’t discovered Maggs. There’s no telling what his feeble attempts at magic could do to her.”

Sarah shuddered at the thought, but she was encouraged by what Jareth had said about her friends. She’d feared for their safety ever since she’d looked out over Percy’s nightmarish new labyrinth. She hoped that they would stay safe, but would somehow find their way to her. She had missed them so much. Perhaps they could even bring her some news about her brother. 

Slowly, she and Jareth moved toward the imposing gate. It creaked open at their approach and they cautiously stepped through and looked around. To both their right and left, the black walls appeared to run endlessly straight, narrowing into the distant horizon. 

“Which way?” Sarah asked. 

In answer, Jareth approached the dark walls. He pulled off one of his gloves, revealing a pale hand with gracefully tapered fingers. He laid his hand against the slick wall and closed his eyes. Sarah was silent, watching him as he leaned into the wall, soft, lilting words of an unknown language falling from his lips. After a moment, he pushed away from the wall and heaved a dejected sigh. 

“She won’t respond,” he told Sarah. “She doesn’t recognize me.” He averted his gaze, but not before Sarah saw the look of deep grief that darkened his eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. He moved away from her before she could say more. With a shrug, she followed him as he stomped down the leaf-littered path. On either side of them, the black walls loomed up, threatening with their crowns of razor wire. There were no other signs of life and no sounds other than the clicking of Jareth’s boots and the occasional rumble of thunder in the distance. The silence unnerved Sarah and she tried to think of something to say to fill the quiet.

“You knew I came back?” she said finally. She had always thought her returns to the Underground had gone unnoticed. She’d made a point to not cause too much stir and to do her best to avoid the king of the goblins. 

Jareth stopped abruptly and turned to face her. “Sarah,” he said, his countenance softening. “I heard every footfall and saw every fingerprint you left on my kingdom. I felt you every time you crossed over the veil.”

Sarah’s throat tightened at his words and his piercing gaze. “You never tried to stop me.”

“I have no power over you, remember?” Jareth answered with a little smile. “You won the right to roam my kingdom freely.” He resumed walking and Sarah matched his stride. “Why did you stop coming?” he asked her.

Sarah shrugged. “It was time,” she told him. “I was getting ready to go off to college and I knew I had to stop flitting around Neverland and grow up.”

“Said who?” asked Jareth with a snort.

“Said me, Jareth,” Sarah answered. “I knew I couldn’t live in a fairytale forever. I had to accept life in the real world. All mortals do. Our time is limited, and for me it was time to begin thinking less about magic and stories and more about things like an education and a career and…”

“Marriage?” Jareth finished for her. 

“Yes,” she replied.

“Well, I’m happy  _ that _ turned out so well for you,” Jareth quipped with a smirk. 

Sarah paused and put her hand on her hip. “Sometimes things don’t work out, Jareth,” she retorted. “Lee and I still have a very good relationship. We just didn’t work as a married couple.”

“Ah,” said Jareth. “Is that why you keep an overnight bag at your ex-husband’s house?” His smirk widened to a full grin and Sarah fought the urge to let out a string of colorful curses. Instead, she took a deep breath before answering his question.

“Lee and I are adults,” she told him calmly. “We enjoy each other’s company, and yes, before you say anything, that means sex. We get together occasionally with no expectations and no strings attached.”

“Conjugal visits?”

“Ugh,” grunted Sarah. She turned away from him and continued trudging down the unending path. “For someone who claims to be so fond of “amorous entanglements”, you certainly have a talent for making them sound unsexy.”

“Would you prefer I use the vernacular?” Jareth purred. “You and your ex are into booty calls?”

Sarah stopped in her tracks and glared back at him. “Grow up, Jareth,” she growled.

Jareth shook his head. “Sarah, I think you’ve misunderstood my amusement. I wasn’t judging you. Your kind has a tendency to be rather backward regarding carnal pleasures. I’m pleased to see that you have taken a more open-minded approach.” 

“Yes well, I’d rather not discuss it with you, if it’s all the same,” Sarah said, turning to walk away. 

Jareth chuckled to himself as he adjusted the bag and sword on his shoulder and followed after her. 

“Will you at least tell me what happened?” he asked. 

“What happened with what?”

“What happened to make you want to dissolve your marriage? Was your former husband unkind? Lazy? Did you quarrel constantly? Was he unfaithful?”

“If you must know, Jareth,” Sarah sighed, “the divorce was all my fault. Lee was great. I’m just a terrible wife. Some people are cut out for that kind of thing. I’m not. I guess in that way I’m a bit like my mother.”

Jareth glanced at her sideways. “I find that very hard to believe, Sarah,” he told her. “If I’ve seen anything from you it’s that you do not give up easily. Therefore I find it difficult to accept that you just threw up your hands, conceded that you were a bad spouse and signed the divorce papers.”

“It really is that simple, Jareth,” Sarah replied. “Lee and I should have been the perfect couple, but we just weren’t. We tried to make it work for years before we split up. We loved each other, but I’m too fiercely independent and he wanted--  _ things _ that I just didn’t.” 

“And now you’re both happier just having one another as fuck buddies.”

“Says the man who had half a dozen men  _ and _ women hanging on him in the ballroom. I’m sure you’re all in a deeply committed relationship,” sneered Sarah. 

Jareth chuckled again. “As I’ve said, Sarah, my kind are not nearly as uptight about sex and relationships as yours. We take our pleasure with whomever it may be found. Monogamy isn’t non-existent with the Fae, but it’s hardly the norm.”

“Exactly,” said Sarah, pointing a finger at him. “You have no basis of comparison with which to make any kind of commentary about me or my relationships, Jareth. Until you’ve tried to balance a job and a life and a marriage, you can just put a sock in it.”

She whirled away, her long dark hair whipping behind her and almost smacking him in the face. 

Jareth huffed and moved toward her. “Sarah,” he called. “I might never have been married, but that doesn’t mean I’m unfamiliar with the challenges and intricacies of romantic relationships. I--”

Sarah stopped him short and motioned toward one of the dark walls. “Is it just me, or did the walls just get closer?” she asked.

Jareth looked in the direction she had indicated and frowned. “I think you’re right,” he said. 

With a groan and the screech of stone on stone, the walls lurched slightly again, shortening the distance between them by several inches. Sarah and Jareth looked up at each other in alarm.

“Run!” they cried in unison. 

They took off wildly down the path as the walls heaved forward another few inches, but the trail continued its endless march toward the horizon. There were no twists, no turns, no way of escape being crushed between the huge stone walls. Jareth scanned the tops of the walls as they ran, searching for any small break in the twisting razor wire that would allow them to climb over. He finally spotted one and dragged Sarah toward that section of wall. The space was only about a foot wide at the top, but it was their best chance. The black walls were closing faster now and only a few feet of space remained between them. 

“Hoist me up, Sarah,” he told her. 

“No way,” cried Sarah. “You’re not leaving me here to get crushed!”

“Use your head, you infuriating girl!” Jareth growled over the ear-jarring grate of the encroaching walls. “You can hoist me up much more easily than you can pull me up. Now, give me a boost and I’ll pull you up from the space at the top.”

Sarah did as she was told, crouching down and making a platform of her hands. Jareth stepped one foot onto her hands and she pushed up with all her strength. Scrabbling for purchase at the top of the slick wall, Jareth finally managed to pull himself up. Turning quickly, he leaned over the wall and held his hands out to Sarah. 

“Grab on and I’ll pull you up!” he called down to her. 

Sarah had to jump up to reach his waiting hands but on the first try she slipped from his grasp, landing with a thud on her backside at the bottom of the wall. Behind her, its twin crept forward again, almost at her back. She scrambled to her feet and jumped again. This time, Jareth’s grasp held firm and he pulled with all his might, letting out a sharp cry with the effort. He yanked Sarah onto the top of the wall just as the two sides collided with a sickening crunch. 

For several moments Jareth and Sarah sat huddled together atop the wall, looking down at where they had been standing. 

“This is bad,” Sarah panted, drawing back her arms from where they had been tangled around Jareth’s neck. 

“We’re alive, Sarah,” Jareth said softly. 

“But we just got here and this place has already tried to kill us.”

“Tried, yes. It didn’t succeed.”

Sarah groaned at Jareth’s sunnier perspective. “Aren’t you the least bit worried?” she asked him.

“Of course I am, Sarah,” he told her. “But we can hardly turn back now, can we?”

_ “Turn back before it’s too late…” _

“Fine, where do we go now?” she asked.

He pointed down toward the ground on the other side of the wall and she turned and looked at the area below where they sat. Instead of a never-ending path, the walls of the labyrinth turned and curved in and out. There were passageways and doors and Sarah couldn’t help but breathe a small sigh of relief that they wouldn’t be threatened by crushing barriers. 

“Let’s go then,” she told him. 

Jareth lowered himself down the other side of the wall, landing gracefully on the ground below. Sarah tossed down the sword and duffle bag to him before throwing her legs over the side and dangling precariously from the top of the wall. 

“Let go,” called Jareth. “I’ll catch you.”

Sarah held her breath before releasing her grip and dropping down into Jareth’s waiting arms. He set her down gently and waited as she smoothed her clothing and swept her long hair out of her face. 

“I think it’s your turn to pick a direction, Sarah,” he told her, slinging the sword over his shoulder once more. 

Sarah looked around, weighing her options. The terrain was still so unfamiliar to her, with new twists and turns and likely new traps that led to oubliettes or certain death. There was no way to know which path was the right one or if there even was a right one. Finally she pointed to a small normal-looking doorway in the dark stone. “There,” she said, trying to sound confident.

Jareth smiled and gave a little bow, ushering her forward. After she had passed by ahead of him he looked back at the massive walls, now violently fused together. A little shudder ran through him before he turned away and followed Sarah through the open door. 

* * *

“You haven’t managed to locate the dwarf or the others?” the goblin king growled from his seat on his curved throne.

“I’ve tried to find them, but--” came the uncertain reply.

“But what?!” he bellowed.

“There’s no proof they even exist, Your Majesty.”

“They were in the story Sarah told, were they not?”

“Yes, but--”

“That’s proof enough. Find them and bring them here. I need to find out what they know. Besides, we can’t have them running around helping Sarah or the former king, can we?” 

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Good. I suggest you not fail me in this,” hissed the goblin king. He gave a dismissive wave and turned his attention back to the object in his hand. The crystal was larger than any he had managed to conjure so far, but it was still misshapen and void of magical essence. 

“Fuck,” he cursed as he hurled it across the room. The crystal hit a wall and shattered into tiny shards. 

The goblin king sat back in his throne, impatient but resigned. The magic of the Underground was stubborn and unmanageable, but so was he, and he  _ would _ find a way to bend it to his will. 

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank for Kudos: BustedBrain, Annibale and blackhorseandthecherrytree
> 
> Thanks also to new subscribers: Aerhiana and Linali95
> 
> All your comments are so encouraging and you're asking the right questions. I can't give too much away because, as I've said, there are more twists and turns to come! 
> 
> ~Fanny~


	6. Chapter 6

The goblin king scowled down from his perch on the balcony of the highest tower of the dark castle. He didn’t bother to turn to glance back at the figure emerging from the shadows behind him. 

“Where are they?” he asked impatiently.

“They appear to be in the um… hedge maze, Sire.”

He turned slowly and deliberately at the news.

“They’ve gotten so far?” he growled.

“Don’t you want them to come?” 

“I want them here on _my_ terms!” bellowed the goblin king. “I won’t stand for Sarah and the former king traipsing through my kingdom as if they own the place. I want them dragged here kicking and screaming. I want them to know who is in charge!”

He stalked over to where the figure stood cowering in the waning light and leaned down into his face. “The former king of the goblins will show me how to wield the magic of the Underground,” he hissed. “I’ll make certain he can’t refuse.”

“And then you’ll change the goblins back?”

“Yes.”

“And then I can go home?”

The goblin king sneered. “Your incompetence is undeserving of any favors, but if you still wish to go home when all of this is over… I’ll allow it.”

The figure bowed and mumbled his thanks before scurrying away to another part of the castle. The goblin king stalked back over to his balcony ledge and gazed out over the twisting maze. Below him, the labyrinth glowed a pale green in the dying light. He closed his eyes and breathed soft words down to the stones below.

_Find them. Stop them. Bring them to me. I won’t rest until they are in my grasp…_

Whispers from the labyrinth rippled back to him, making him shudder.

_As my lord commands, so shall it be done._

* * *

The hedge maze was jarringly different from the neatly trimmed and verdant paths Sarah remembered. In place of sculpted walls of yew and boxwood grew scraggly barriers of dried weeds and tangled vines. The overgrown vegetation spilled into the path and curled around the statuary. Sarah and Jareth followed the brambly path into a large courtyard with a reflecting pool at its center. Gnarled vines covered the space, twining over the pillars surrounding the pool and drooping down into the murky water. Sarah gazed down into the pond and wrinkled her nose in distaste. The water was stagnant and covered with a foul, slimy film. 

“Percy must not have much of a green--” Sarah began, but something near the edge of the pool caught her eye and she moved toward it. She picked up the object, a metal tube with a sprayer on the end.

“Hoggle!” cried Sarah. She turned and showed the sprayer to Jareth. “Hoggle was here!” she told him. 

Jareth nodded and took the sprayer from Sarah and studied it, sniffing it carefully and running his gloved hands over the metal surface. “It’s not been used in over a day,” he said before handing the device back to Sarah. 

“Do you think he’s okay?” she asked him, clutching the sprayer to her chest. She couldn’t bear the thought of her friend falling into Percy’s hands. It was bad enough that the new goblin king had her brother. 

“That wasn’t hastily discarded, Sarah,” Jareth told her, motioning toward Hoggle’s sprayer. “It was placed here.” 

“Like a message?” asked Sarah. 

“Perhaps,” replied Jareth. “We should be careful,” he continued. “Remember, the first rule of the labyrinth is that nothing is as it seems.”

Sarah nodded silently and followed him away from the pool and the courtyard and into a thickly overgrown section of the maze. Jareth led the way, sweeping the scraggly vines out the way with his sword. His keen ears perked up at the sound of hushed voices around a section of wall and he slowed his pace and motioned for Sarah to be still and quiet. She did as she was asked and watched as he crept forward, sword in hand, before rushing into the clearing with a yell. Sarah followed and almost bumped into him as he stopped short and let his sword fall to his side. Following his bemused gaze, Sarah looked into the clearing beyond and gave a little shriek of joy.

“Hoggle! Ludo! Didymus! Ambrosius!” she cried. Her four friends looked up from their Scrabble game and smiled. 

“Sarah!” exclaimed Hoggle. “I knew you’d find yer way back!” He stood and moved toward her and Sarah rushed forward to greet him, but Jareth caught her arm and pulled her back. 

“Jareth, what the hell?” she asked, annoyed.

“What’s the first rule of the labyrinth, Sarah?” he asked. She looked back at her friends. As she watched, they all rose to their feet and began moving toward her, smiling. She started to argue with Jareth, but something about their movements was off. They seemed halted, robotic. 

Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus and Ambrosius drew closer and Jareth raised his sword again as the four formed a circle around them. 

“Sarah,” Hoggle said again. “I knew you’d find yer way back.” This time his voice was low and it made Sarah’s blood turn to ice. The four figures of her “friends” inched closer and Sarah noticed that they were hazy around the edges, as if not fully rendered. Ludo glitched in and out as he lumbered forward and Sir Didymus’s voice was staticky as he spoke. “Sar--... been… for thee…” 

Jareth began backing away, brandishing his sword with one hand and pulling Sarah along with the other, but Hoggle and the others tightened the circle, boxing them in. 

“No one said you could leave, yer Majesty,” Hoggle sneered. 

“I don’t need your permission, Hogwash,” Jareth replied with a swing of his sword. Hoggle fell backwards, landing on his backside. The fall caused him to glitch completely, revealing an orange humanoid creature in a silver bodysuit. Seeing his transformation, the others followed, crackling into matching creatures with burnished scales, gaping mouths full of serrated teeth and long slashing claws.

“Oh fuck,” Sarah spat as the creatures advanced.

“What are they?” Jareth asked her, not taking his eyes off the snarling creatures.

“They’re Necrolis,” Sarah answered with a hard gulp. “Aliens. They’re from a video game, _Planet Abyss 4._ They guard the final spaceport and try to keep you from getting to the Big Boss. They… they’re really bad guys, Jareth.”

“Yes, I can see that, Sarah,” Jareth scoffed. “How does one defeat them?”

Sarah shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any combination of up, back, A or B that’s going to help us right now.”

Jareth tightened his grip on the sword. “You still have the dwarf’s sprayer?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sarah answered. She slowly primed the pump of the sprayer and she and Jareth turned, back to back, in a circle. 

“On my count then,” Jareth said. “One, two, three!”

At Jareth’s signal, Sarah released a sweeping vapor from the sprayer, covering the advancing aliens in a thick cloud of fairy poison. The Necolis coughed and sputtered and Jareth used the distraction to charge forward, raising his sword over his head. He brought it down across the shoulder of one of the aliens, severing its arm. The alien shrieked as black fluid spurted from its dangling stump. Sarah drew back the metal sprayer and hit the creature over the head and it crumpled to the ground, still screaming. Its cries seemed to whip its comrades into a frenzy. They rushed forward, mouths open and claws lashing about. Jareth swung his sword again aiming at one the creatures’ heads. It darted away but not before slashing its jagged claws across his chest. 

“Jareth!” Sarah cried as dark, red streaks of blood welled up under his shirt. Wincing against the pain, he raised his sword and caught the creature on the side of the neck. Black goo shot out of the wound, showering the side of his face in inky blobs. 

Sarah ran toward another of the creatures, rearing back with Hoggle’s sprayer, but the creature caught her arm and tore the device from her grasp. With an angry hiss, it bit down on her left shoulder, its teeth threatening to rip her arm from its socket. In too much pain to even scream, Sarah reached back with her other hand, searching for any point of vulnerability. She jabbed her fingernails into the alien’s bulging eyes and it released her. She fell, clutching her shoulder as Jareth sliced through the alien’s head with a hard slash of his sword. 

The last of the Necrolis charged at them and Jareth, bleeding and enraged, quickly dispatched it, hacking it to the ground before impaling it on his sword. The alien Sarah had knocked to the ground was still alive and Jareth stomped over to it and hauled it to its feet. 

“Did Percy send you after us?” he demanded. 

The creature in his grasp whimpered and writhed, his severed stump still oozing black blood. 

“I know no Percy,” it sputtered. “Only the goblin king.”

“This is what I think of the goblin king,” Jareth hissed into the creature’s face. He plunged the sword into the Necrolis’ stomach with a grunt. A sickening gurgle rose up from the creature's throat and Jareth released it from his grasp, letting it fall in a bloody heap at his feet. The sword followed, clattering to the ground beside the dead alien.

Panting hard, he turned and made his way back to where Sarah lay crumpled and groaning on the ground. Falling to his knees beside her, he pushed her hands away from her shoulder to examine the wound. Her thin t-shirt was torn away from her left arm and was soaked in blood, both hers and the alien’s. The gash in her shoulder thankfully wasn’t deep, but it was still pouring a lot of blood. Jareth looked around and spotted Sarah’s duffle bag several feet away where it had fallen during the fight. He retrieved it and set it on the ground between them before rifling through it for anything that could be used as a bandage.

“Socks,” Sarah said weakly. “They’ll be best for my shoulder. We can use the hoodie for your wounds.”

Jareth stared at her for a moment before following her gaze and understanding what she meant. His chest had been lacerated, the skin torn open in stinging gashes. His dark shirt hung in ribbons over the torn flesh. 

“We have to clean the wounds before we can dress them,” Sarah told him. He nodded and took out one of the water bottles and turned back to her, frowning. 

“Can you take it off?” he asked, motioning toward her shirt. Sarah gulped and shook her head. 

“No,” she said softly. “You’ll have to do it, but be careful.”

“Of course.” Jareth gingerly peeled the shredded shirt away from the wound before tearing it down the side with a swift tug. His hands stilled when they touched the strap of her bra. Noticing his hesitation, Sarah gently pulled the strap from her shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest. Jareth tossed the material aside and retrieved the water bottle. He yanked off his gloves with his teeth before pouring the water over Sarah’s bloodied shoulder and gently washing the wound with his bare hands. 

Sarah tensed, unsure of whether the reaction was from the sting of the water or the feel of his fingers lightly brushing over her skin. She watched him as he bathed her shoulder, carefully avoiding the broken skin, but managing to thoroughly clean the wound of blood and dirt. When he was satisfied he found Sarah’s extra pair of socks and unrolled them. Sarah instructed him what to do and did as she told him, cutting the foot off one sock and carefully sliding it up her arm and over her shoulder. The other sock he cut into squares, tucking some of them between the tube of the first sock and Sarah’s skin. It was a crude bandage, but it would have to do. 

“Now for you,” Sarah told him. He let out a huff, but slowly shrugged out of his tattered shirt. He tossed the garment aside and reached for the water bottle, but Sarah had it in her hands. “Lie down,” she said, sitting up in front of him in her barely clinging bra. 

“You’re wounded yourself Sarah,” Jareth argued. “You shouldn’t--”

“Lie down,” she said again, more firmly. 

He obeyed, stretching out on the ground next to her with his arms behind his head. Sarah held back a wince as she shifted slightly to better reach him. Three angry red slashes had been carved across Jareth’s chest from his right collarbone to just under his left pec. She drew in a little breath at the contrast of deep crimson against his pale skin. In her memory he had been a rather slight figure, but a flex of his arm revealed corded triceps and deltoids. Her gaze swept over the graceful lines of his naked torso from his sculpted collar bone to the delicate hollow at the base of his throat. She studied his chest as she cleaned his wounds, noting the rise and fall of it as he sucked in a breath when the water hit his lacerations. Her eyes followed the light covering of golden hair as it narrowed over his belly before trailing downward beneath his dark leather pants. With a gulp, she forced her eyes back up to his face. 

Jareth smirked up at her. “There must be a less painful way to get us both naked, Sarah,” he purred. 

Sarah narrowed her eyes at him before dumping the rest of the water over his face and neck. He sputtered and cursed but she ignored him and scooted away to rummage through the duffle bag. She took out her worn hoodie and Jareth, still grumbling, helped her tear it into one long strip, winding it around from the bottom. This was then tightly wound over his right shoulder and under his left arm and tied together behind his back. Like Sarah’s bandage, the effort was rudimentary, but it would suffice. 

“We should stay here until morning,” Jareth told her. “The light is almost gone and it will be far too dark to travel among the hedges. Besides, we should rest and recover our strength.”

“What if more Necrolis come?” asked Sarah. 

“Percy must have used quite a lot of the labyrinth’s magic to create those creatures and have them fight us,” Jareth answered. “They couldn’t even hold a glamour while in motion. His magic is growing stronger, but it is still very weak. He’ll need to recharge. We should use the opportunity to recharge as well.”

Sarah nodded in agreement and dug through the duffle bag for their store of food. They ate a small meal of apple and bread before settling beneath a vine-curtained section of the wall. The cover of green gave just enough camouflage to make them feel a bit safer from would-be attackers. However, the space was decidedly cramped and Sarah ended up with her back pressed into Jareth, almost spooning. She squirmed in the tight space, trying to make a little more room between them. Behind her, Jareth sighed.

“Sarah, relax,” he groaned. “I know what you’re thinking, but let me assure you that I am perfectly capable of behaving as a gentleman even when there’s a beautiful half-naked woman pressed against me. Of course, if you insist on wriggling around like that, all bets are off.”

Sarah immediately stilled and she didn’t miss the chuckle that rumbled in his chest and against her back. She lay still for several moments listening to the rhythm of his breathing and the steady pulse of his heart against her back.

“You think I’m beautiful?” she asked finally, not sure if he was even still awake.

“Don’t you know?” he replied with a yawn. “Surely your ex-husband paid you compliments.”

“Well, yeah. He did, but… He was supposed to do that. We were married.”

“Your point?”

“You and I… We’re not-- I mean,” Sarah stammered.

“No, we’re not,” said Jareth. “But it’s true all the same. Now go to sleep, Sarah.”

She tried to do as he said but found it nearly impossible. He was too warm, too close, too _alive_ for her to ignore. She tried not to think of what it would be like to sleep against him like that in a proper bed. What it would be like to have his arm lazily draped over her, just grazing her breast. What it would be like to turn into his embrace. To trace the line of his jaw and the slope of his neck with her hand. To wipe the smirk off his beautiful mouth with a passionate kiss--

_Damn my libido!_ she cursed at herself. It had been nearly four months since she’d had sex, the last time having been with Lee just before she left for the Yucatan. She’d never had a problem with seeing to her own physical needs, but there was just something about being in the hands of a skilled lover. 

She was sure Jareth had no shortage of willing partners eager to share his bed. She had seen that much at his lurid masquerade. He had been the center of attention with almost all of the revelers tripping over themselves to be close to him. He had shocked her to her core when he offered her his hand and swept her into a dance. She had felt so beautiful dancing with him.

_An illusion,_ she chided. _Just like everything else about him._

He could be noble when he wanted, she reasoned. He could be gallant, like when he fought off the aliens. He could be gentle, like when he dressed her wounds. He could even be complimentary when it suited him. But powerless as he currently was, he still had the bearing and mind of a Fae and as such shouldn’t be trusted. 

As if in answer to her inner dialogue, Jareth shifted, pressing his lower half into her backside and bringing a gasp to her lips. 

_Powerless indeed,_ she grumbled as she scooted as far from him as she could.

_I may be in big trouble…_

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for kudos from Rhedkrow as well as my anonymous Guest friends!
> 
> You guys are killing me with your comments. It's truly difficult to answer your questions without giving too much away. I feel like I'm walking a tightrope. That's not a complaint, by the way. I love that you're thinking so much about this story. If you feel you know something that might prove to be a spoiler, please IM here and ask about it.  
> Thank you all again for your lovely comments! 
> 
> Please check out the playlist for this story that I've included in the beginning notes. I'll be adding a link soon for my Pinterest inspo board as well! 
> 
> ~Fanny~


	7. Chapter 7

For the first time in all her years spent scurrying about the castle beyond the goblin city, Maggs felt truly afraid. The former king instilled fear in his goblin subjects, but it was a different brand of fear. It was the fun, goose-pimply kind that made her jump a little when he bellowed. It was the giddy kind of fear that sent a shiver down her spine whenever she heard the clicking of his boots echoing down the hallway. The former king was often testy, but Maggs had never felt unsafe in his presence. Sure, he shouted and scolded and made demands, but as quickly as he was angered, he was appeased and would sing and dance and make ridiculous magic spectacles to entertain his riotous goblin horde. 

The new goblin king instilled quite a different type of fear. There was a dark anger about him. It radiated in waves from his being, rippling out with the swish of his black cape. His anger blended with and seemed to feed on the fear and guilt of the shadowy one who was most often at his side. The two new inhabitants of the goblin castle were a black stew of bitterness and rage and it was this that kept Maggs fleeing to the dark corners of the castle. She remained out of sight, but within earshot of the conversations of the goblin king and the shadow man. She didn’t understand most of what she heard, but it filled her with deep dread all the same. There were plans being made, dark plans. 

Maggs wracked her little goblin brains trying to make sense of the changing atmosphere of the castle. Both the new king and the shadow man were familiar, but only as bits of a shattered dream the morning after a night of guzzling goblin ale. The images were jumbled and nonsensical: blonde hair and giggles, a lopsided smile, red and white stripes… Why were such bright memories now surrounded by such a dark cloud of anger and fear? 

As silently as she could, Maggs skittered across the ceiling beams and peered down over the half-lit throne room. The goblin king slouched in his throne, frowning into one of the misshapen crystals he had pulled from the air. 

_Hmph!_ she grunted inwardly, catching herself before she made the sound out loud and drew the king’s attention upward to her perch. 

_New king can’t even make proper crystals,_ she thought. _Maybe that’s why new king is so angry. Because old king’s magic was better._

As if reading her thoughts, the goblin king growled and tossed the crystal away. ‘It’s not fair,” he muttered. “What’s the point of having this magic if I can’t do what I want with it?” He pounded a gloved fist into his curved throne, making Maggs jump and almost lose her grip on the beam. She held her breath as he stood, hurling curses, and stomped out of the throne room. 

With a slow exhale, Maggs retreated back to her hiding place. She wasn’t smart, even for a goblin, but she knew enough to stay out of the way of the king and his shadowy comrade. Their darkness was dangerous, and something deep inside her echoed the warning that if they ever found her, they would destroy her completely.

* * *

Kneeling on the blackened earth of what had been the forest, Jareth scooped up a handful of dark ash, sniffing it before letting it filter through his fingers. Gnarled and naked trees loomed above him, casting jagged shadows over the scorched ground. 

“Fire Gang?” Sarah asked.

Jareth stood and shook his head. “No,” he told her. “I’m not sure what did this.” He looked around at the charred remains of the forest. What had been a thick, enchanted woodland with a carpet of red leaves underfoot and shafts of golden light bursting through the twisting branches overhead was now a black and gray landscape dotted with dead trees with burned, bare branches. The sight sickened him, and he closed his eyes and turned away, unwilling to see any more.

Sarah’s chest tightened at his reaction. It was more than a little unnerving to see the normally cool and collected king of the goblins so undone. It didn’t help that he was also uncharacteristically disheveled. He still wore his leather pants, but his tattered shirt had been replaced with one of Toby’s from the duffle bag. The t-shirt was a few sizes too small and it was drawn tight against the covering of homemade bandages Sarah had wrapped around his chest, making him look even more worn. 

Sarah supposed she didn’t look much better in her muddied jeans from the day before and her plaid shirt buttoned up only halfway to make room for the bulky sock bandage covering her wounded shoulder.

“Jareth,” Sarah said softly, laying a hand on his bare arm. He flinched at the unexpected contact and opened his eyes. 

“Don’t pity me, Sarah,” he snapped, seeing her look of concern. “It isn’t the first time my kingdom has been laid to ruin.” He jerked away from her and moved to stomp off down the trail but Sarah stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“That was different and you know it,” she said. Her words were calm, not angry and Jareth found his own anger dwindling as she held his gaze. 

“Yes,” he conceded finally. He gave a heavy sigh and surveyed the scene again. “This was done with malicious intent,” he told her. “Someone or something made a point to cause as much damage as possible.” 

Sarah nodded, dropping her gaze to the blackened ground.

“Jareth,” she said, staring down at her feet.

“What?” he asked. He followed her gaze, his eyes growing wide as he looked down at the dark divot in which they were standing. 

“Is that a--?” 

“Claw print? Yes,” answered Jareth. 

“Great,” said Sarah. 

The print was at least four feet in width, pressed deeply into the charred earth. Scythe-like talon marks jutted out from the impression of the toes. Several meters away, a matching print had been impacted into the dark dirt. Jareth and Sarah turned in a slow circle, noting the pattern of huge claw prints over the terrain.

“We should leave this place right now,” Jareth whispered.

Sarah nodded silently and together they began backing away from the clearing, inching toward the relative cover of the bare trees. 

“Leaving so soon?” 

The hissing voice was vaguely familiar to Sarah, and it turned her blood to ice and made her stomach twist in knots. It was a crackly voice, as if heard over a phone with a poor connection, staticky and far away. Sarah scoured her memory trying to remember where she had heard it.

“Such tasty little creatures,” hissed the disembodied voice and with a gasp Sarah realized who it belonged to just as an enormous dragon slithered out from the cover of the blackened trees. 

“No,” she breathed, covering her mouth with her hands. She stared up at the dragon, paralyzed with horror and disbelief.

The dragon towered above Sarah and Jareth, showing off its massive size and intimidating features. Smoke poured from its nostrils and it bared its jagged teeth and snapped its jaws at them. Black scales covered the dragon’s skin like metal armour from the top of its horned head to the end of its ridged tail. A forked tongue darted out at them as the dragon leaned down and spoke again.

“You recognize me, don’t you, Sarah?” it asked with an evil grin. 

Sarah gulped and nodded and beside her Jareth gasped.

“What does it mean, Sarah?” he demanded to know. “How do you know this creature?”

“It’s from an old game,” Sarah told him breathlessly. “Dungeons and Dragons. Toby made the dragon up as a joke…”

“I don’t understand,” said Jareth as the dragon leaned down further, exhaling hot sulfuric breath over them.

“It’s Linda,” groaned Sarah. “My mother.”

Jareth drew in a sharp breath, understanding dawning on him. He slowly reached behind him to grip his sword and the dragon drew back and laughed. 

“Stupid, pathetic creatures,” it growled. “Your toy sword is useless against me.”

“We’ll just see about that,” Jareth snarled before charging forward with the sword. He lashed it against the dragon’s exposed belly, but the heavy blow merely bounced off its armoured hide, sending him spiraling to the ground. Blue flames erupted from the dragon’s mouth as it threw back its head and laughed at Jareth's pitiful attempt. 

Sarah ran to Jareth and helped him to his feet, looking back over her shoulder for any means of escape. The forest provided some cover, but she doubted they could outrun the dragon’s fiery breath. She was near panic when her gaze fell upon an object near the edge of the clearing. She leaned in close to Jareth.

“Keep attacking it,” she whispered to him.

“What?” he cried, his eyes going wide. “Did you not see what happened? This sword is useless against it!”

“I just need a distraction and a few seconds of time,” Sarah told him. “Please Jareth. Just trust me.”

Jareth said nothing, but nodded and picked up the battered sword from the ground. With a fierce roar he charged at the dragon again while Sarah ran toward the edge of the clearing. The dragon howled in amusement as Jareth hacked at its thick skin. It swiped its huge tail across the ground, catching Jareth’s ankles and knocking him off his feet. The force of the blow shook the earth, causing Sarah to stumble as she ran. Fortunately, the dragon was finding too much amusement in toying with Jareth to pay her much attention. Sarah darted across the trembling ground before scrabbling over a pile of brush and rocks to reach the object at its apex. Grabbing it, she raised it above her head and called back to the dragon.

“Hey, bitch!”

Jareth and the dragon both turned toward the sound of her voice and saw Sarah standing in the center of the clearing, a deep green egg held high over her head.

“Sarah,” said Jareth furrowing his brow. “You’re either the bravest or stupidest woman I have ever known. What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m going to make a bargain,” Sarah said, more to the dragon than to him. “I won’t smash your egg to bits on the rocks if you agree to give us safe passage.”

“I make no such bargains,” the dragon replied. Sarah had to fight the urge to shudder from hearing her absent mother’s voice emanating from the mouth of the fearsome creature.

“Fine,” she said, barely managing to keep her voice steady. “Then I’m about to make myself a very large omelet.” She strode casually toward the pile of rocks and lifted the egg over them.

The dragon watched her movements, its yellow eyes darting back and forth. “Wait!” it finally cried. 

Sarah lowered the egg and turned toward the dragon.

“What do you want?” it asked.

“I want you to promise us **both** safe passage through the forest,” Sarah told it. “You will let us pass and you will not harm us in any way.”

Jareth watched incredulously as the dragon paused to mull over Sarah’s terms. He knew Sarah’s body language enough to see that she was beyond terrified, but she didn’t waver. She continued to stare down the towering dragon, stubbornly clutching its egg to her breast. Finally, the dragon seemed to relent, lowering itself in a sweeping bow toward Sarah. 

“Give me back the egg and no harm will come to you,” it said.

“Do you swear it?” Sarah demanded.

“Yes,” the creature answered. 

Slowly, Sarah walked toward the dragon. It remained still as she advanced and Jareth readied his sword, useless as it was, against any unexpected attack. Sarah stopped a few feet from the dragon and placed the egg on the ground. 

“Here,” she said. “I’m grateful for your cooperation.” She stepped back as the dragon reached out to take the egg in its enormous claws. It raised the egg to its head, gently cradling it against its cheek.

“Thank you,” said the crackling voice of Linda Williams. 

Sarah shuddered and turned to Jareth. “Let’s go,” she told him. 

He nodded and sheathed his sword before following her silently into the cover of the trees. 

“Sarah,” he said when they were out of the clearing. She turned to him and gave a little hiccupy cry before collapsing into his arms. 

“I’m going to kill him,” she groaned into his shoulder. “I’m going to kill Percy.”

Still gripping her arms, Jareth took a step back and studied her face. “That doesn’t sound like the Sarah Williams I know. Just yesterday you were asking me to give him his sister back.”

Sarah pulled out of his embrace and strode a few feet away. “That was before I knew what he’d done,” she told him. “That dragon… Percy couldn’t have known about that. He must be mining Toby’s mind for things to use against us.”

“It’s a possibility,” said Jareth. “And if that is the case, his power is growing stronger. He must be stopped as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” Sarah agreed. “He’s gone too far. He’s using my brother, he’s hurt you, he’s destroyed this place that I--” she stopped short and looked away.

“What was that, Sarah?” asked Jareth, leaning down to catch her gaze. “This place that you what?”

Sarah shrugged and gave a little sigh, conceding. “I love this place, Jareth,” she told him. “At least I love what it was before. What it was… with you.”

“And you love it so much that you ran away and never looked back, hmm?” asked Jareth, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I told you, Jareth,” Sarah huffed, throwing her hands up, “I had to.”

“Yes, yes, I remember. Wendy Darling had to grow up and leave the nursery.” 

Sarah rounded on him, prepared to give him a piece of her mind, but she halted, seeing his downcast expression and understood that his words weren’t spoken out of malice as much as out of hurt and disappointment.

“I’m sorry, Jareth,” she whispered instead. “I just don’t belong here. And I-- I was afraid.” 

He gazed at her quizzically and she continued. “It was becoming harder and harder for me to leave,” she admitted. “I had to stop coming because I was afraid that one day I just wouldn’t go home. I couldn’t just disappear like that. I couldn’t abandon Toby.”

“The way your mother abandoned you.”

Sarah nodded. “I have my own guilt too, Jareth. After all, I wished my brother away to the goblins.”

Jareth smiled down at her. “Is that why you look after him so fiercely now? And your ridiculous ex-husband? And the children in the jungle village?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Sarah said with a shrug. 

“Oh Sarah, Sarah,” Jareth sighed, cupping the side of her face with his hand. “Let it go. Forgive yourself. Come home.”

Suddenly he was very close, close enough for Sarah to feel his breath across her cheek. His eyes bore into hers so intensely that she couldn’t look away. He pressed in closer, his hands on either side of her face. And then-- then he was kissing her. 

It wasn’t like the kiss in the cenote. He kissed her slowly, deliberately. His mouth pressed and moved over hers like clear water over smooth rocks, flowing with fluid grace, eddying over the corners of her mouth. She leaned in, heart pounding, pulse thundering, and kissed him back. His hands caressed the sides of her face while hers slid over his shoulders and neck and into his wild blonde tangle of hair. Her fingers combed through the silky strands and he moaned against her mouth. The sound roused Sarah from her lustful haze and brought her back to reality. Twisting out of his embrace, Sarah shuffled away from him, her fingers trembling across her swollen lips.

“Jareth,” she said, not looking at him. “I’m going to venture a guess that that was not a kiss for protection.”

“As if you’ve ever needed protection,” Jareth said, stalking toward her. “Sarah Williams: Champion of the Labyrinth, Protector of the Innocent, Vanquisher of Dragons.” He paused in his advance and chuckled.

“You insane woman,” he continued, shaking his head. “What on earth possessed you to try to make a deal with a dragon?”

Sarah straightened her back and looked up at him. “It's a strategy that works sometimes in the game,” she told him. 

“Sometimes?” asked Jareth, amused.

“It depends on the roll of the dice,” she answered. 

“Tell me,” Jareth said, a wicked grin breaking across his features. “What number would I have to roll in order to--”

He was interrupted by the shattering of trees and a blast of sulfuric air as the dragon tore through the canopy and landed with a thundering crash in front of them, knocking them both to the ground. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Linda Williams’ voice echoed around the broken trees.

“Let us through,” Sarah cried as she scrambled to her feet. “We made a bargain!”

The dragon let out a chilling cackle. “I am under no obligation to uphold bargains with pathetic creatures like you,” it sneered.

“But I gave you back your egg!” 

“Oh this?” The dragon opened its massive claw, revealing the shining green egg. With an evil grin, it opened its mouth and dropped the egg onto its tongue before chomping down. Sarah’s stomach lurched as bloody yolk oozed from the dragon’s mouth. It slowly chewed, crunching shell and the bones of its unhatched young between its jagged teeth before swallowing it down its dark gullet. 

Jareth and Sarah stood petrified as the dragon leaned down and flicked out its forked tongue.

“I’m still hungry,” it hissed.

“But--but, that’s not fair,” Sarah stammered. “In the game--”

The dragon reared back its head and roared. “This isn’t a game, Sarah Williams!”

Fire rained down around them and Sarah fought for breath amid the billowing flames. A cool hand found hers and clasped it, dragging her out of the path of the inferno and into a cluster of trees. She let herself be pulled along further into the forest. Behind her, she could hear the dragon crashing through the trees and she knew its fiery breath could incinerate them both from hundreds of feet away. 

“Run, Sarah,” Jareth commanded, struggling against her faltering steps. 

“It’s no use,” Sarah panted. She could feel the whoosh of air as the dragon gathered a breath and prepared to blow out a column of fire down the path. 

“Run!” Jareth shouted again. 

Sarah snapped out of her horrified daze and forced herself to focus forward. Steeling her nerves, she began pumping her legs as fast as they would go. Jareth dropped her hand and fell into pace beside her, darting through the trees as the forest darkened around them. The hot breath of the dragon was at their backs while ahead of them was deepening blackness. They crashed through the trees as the dragon let out an ear-splitting roar and fire erupted from its mouth and nostrils. Sarah screamed just as the ground shook and opened up beneath her and Jareth, swallowing them down into the darkness below. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for kudos from: SparklePunk, Bexylexi, and Squinch
> 
> And thank you for all your thoughts, comments and questions. Please keep them coming because I love hearing from you! 
> 
> We now have an appearance by the goblin Maggs (formerly Marguerite!) Let me know what you think of her because you may see a lot more of her. 
> 
> Thanks!  
> ~Fanny~


	8. Chapter 8

Sarah flailed helplessly as she fell, hoping for something, _anything,_ to grab on to, but there was nothing. Large rocks and thick clods of dirt tumbled around her, remnants of the forest floor that had dropped out from beneath her and Jareth. 

_Jareth!_

Where was he? She couldn’t see anything but raining dirt and darkness. The earth was swallowing her, drawing her deep into its depths and there was nothing she could do but allow herself to be squeezed down into the blackness.

Searing pain shot through her body as something closed around her left wrist, halting her fall with a sudden, wrenching jerk. The rocks and dirt continued raining down on her head, but the narrow hole at her feet opened up into a wide chasm and she found herself staring down into a cavernous and foul-smelling pit. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, Sarah could see the murky sludge of the bog below her dangling legs. Huge green bubbles gurgled up from its depths, belching putrid gas upward.

“Ugh!” she cried, covering her nose with her free hand. 

“Sarah,” called a voice above her. She looked up and saw Jareth hanging with one hand from a gnarled root. His other hand was wrapped around her left arm and was the only thing keeping her from splashing down into the disgusting bog below. 

“Sarah,” he called again. “Hold tight. I’m going to swing you over to the ledge,” he told her. 

She nodded her head and held her breath as he began slowly swinging her back and forth, gaining momentum with each pass. The narrow ledge of the pit remained just out of reach and she could tell he was losing strength. His grip on her arm was loosening. Sarah stiffened her body, pointing her toes and swinging her legs hard in the direction of the ledge.

“Let go, Jareth,” she called up to him. He released her with a grunt and she sailed over the festering bog and crashed into the opposite wall before crumpling onto the narrow ledge. A few seconds later, Jareth landed beside her, dropping gracefully onto the jagged outcropping.

“Are you all right?” he asked, kneeling beside her. 

Sarah groaned in response. “My shoulder is killing me,” she told him, “but I’m okay.” 

She winced as he pulled her to her feet, her wounded shoulder still throbbing from her earlier injury as well as its impact with the wall. Below them, the bog bubbled and hissed, reminding them of their close call.

“Thanks for saving me. Again.” Sarah didn’t like that she seemed to be developing a habit of needing to be rescued. It was bad enough to be indebted to Jareth, let alone giving him an opportunity to poke fun at her ineptitude. 

“You’re welcome,” he replied simply. She had anticipated some sort of rebuke or snide comment regarding her misjudgment of the dragon, but he said nothing else. He merely readjusted his sword and attempted to sweep the black dirt from his pants. 

Sarah looked around for the duffle bag but it was nowhere to be seen, most likely dropped in their mad dash to escape the dragon. 

_Great!_ she thought. _Now we don’t have any food or water or supplies. Nice going, Williams!_

She disheartenedly fell into step behind Jareth as he followed the narrow path around the cavern in search of an exit. In several places the ledge tapered to mere inches wide and she and Jareth had to crabwalk along it with their backs to the wall. Finally, the path opened into a dark passage that led away from the bog and they were able to breathe a fresh sigh of relief. 

Pausing just inside the dark tunnel, Sarah leaned against a damp wall. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. Her words had been uttered quietly, but they still echoed around the dimly-lit tunnel. “I took for granted that the dragon would play by rules.”

Jareth studied her for a moment before speaking. “The rules of the game you know don’t seem to apply here, Sarah,” he told her. “Remember, that nothing--”

“Is as it seems,” she finished for him. “Right. I got it.” She pushed away from the wall and walked glumly down the path. Jareth swiftly followed and reached out to grasp her hand. 

“Sarah,” he said. “We can’t start doubting now. We’ve come too far.”

She paused and turned to him. “I know, but I can’t help feeling frustrated, maybe even terrified. Somehow Percy has found out exactly how to get to me. That dragon-- I can’t begin to tell you how horrific that was. And what’s worse is that Percy _knows_ that. He knows on some kind of psycho mental level what scares the hell out of me and he’s not afraid to use it. If he’s willing to do that to me, what is he doing to Toby?”

Tears were stinging the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall and she turned away, not wanting Jareth to see her cry. He stepped toward her and squeezed her hand. 

“Sarah, I don’t think--” he stopped short and seemed to mull his words. “Percy doesn’t have as much power as you think,” he finally continued. “The things we’ve faced are only the result of the labyrinth’s reshaping. As I told you, it molds to suit its master.”

Releasing Sarah's hand, Jareth paced a few long strides down the path before turning back to her. “Percy didn’t create that dragon. It was given form by the labyrinth itself. The best the new goblin king can do is project fears at us. If he had any sort of control over the magic we would most likely be dead.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Sarah asked, folding her arms over her chest. 

“I truly believe that Toby is safe,” Jareth answered. “But I also have a feeling that there is much more at stake then either of us realizes.” 

Staring down the dark path into the tunnels, Sarah let out a slow sigh. She reached out to Jareth and took his hand, twining her fingers with his.

“What about Maggs?” she asked. “Do you think she’s okay?”

Jareth shook his head and moved down the path into the dark tunnels. 

“Maggs is not like the other goblins,” he told her. “She isn’t clever, but she’s cautious. She won’t just follow anyone who keeps the ale flowing.” 

He paused and looked pensive. “Maggs has always stayed close to me,” he continued, a sadness to his voice. “She sits at my feet when I am on my throne. She follows me around the castle, scrambling over the beams above my head or scurrying from shadow to shadow. She sleeps in the corner of the door to my chambers--”

Jareth swallowed hard and looked away, but not before Sarah saw the look of concern in his eyes. It surprised her to think that he could have any regard at all for a simple goblin. But he seemed to have a special affection for Maggs and he seemed genuinely worried about her. Sarah squeezed his hand.

“Surely Percy wouldn’t harm the sister he was so set on getting back,” she reasoned. 

“Not intentionally, no,” replied Jareth. “But I fear that if he finds her he’ll attempt to change her back and that would be disastrous, even with the proper command of magic.”

“How so?”

“So many years have passed, Sarah. A changeling’s humanity ebbs away with the passage of time. There is likely nothing left of Maggs’ humanity. She wouldn’t survive any attempt to change her back.”

“There is a lot at stake then,” Sarah said, more to herself than to Jareth.

If Percy, already insane and power-mad, destroyed the sister he’d come to rescue, there was no telling what would happen. He could wreak even greater havoc on the Underground. The labyrinth, responding to his rage, could do unspeakable things. Nightmarish things. Sarah shuddered at the thought. 

“We have to hurry,” she told Jareth. 

Jareth nodded and together they slipped into the shadows of the tunnels.

* * *

  
  
  


Maggs frowned down from the rafter of the king’s study, surveying the destruction below her.

_“Not good,”_ she thought. _“Old king is going to be mad.”_

The new king and the shadow man had torn apart the study, pulling down scrolls from the shelves and tossing books about in their fruitless search. 

“There has to be something useful here!” growled the king, slamming a heavy leather-bound book onto the large desk in the center of the room. “I can’t even read any of these fucking books! They’re all in some stupid _Lord of the Rings_ language.” He swept the book off the desk and onto the littered floor with a loud bang. Sulking, he flopped down into the desk chair and put his head in his hands. 

“It’s not fair,” he grumbled.

“Not enjoying your wish, Sire?” his companion asked, a bit too acerbically. The king was on him in an instant, grabbing him by his collar and dragging his face down to his. 

“Just because I don’t have full use of the magic doesn’t mean I can’t throw you out of a tower window. You’ve not been especially helpful, you know,” he hissed.

The shadow man gulped hard against the king’s grip. 

“I had hoped for more from you,” the king continued. “You seemed to know so much. But you’re turning out to be nothing more than a sniveling little brat.” He relaxed his grip and Maggs watched in alarm as the other man fell to his knees. 

The goblin king stepped back to the desk, his boots clicking sharply over the flagstone. He turned back to the shadow man who was struggling to his feet.

“You would do well to remember who you’re dealing with. I’m getting tired of being disappointed.” He pointed a gloved hand at the other man. “If Sarah and the former king are not at my mercy before tomorrow morning, I swear I will destroy you.” 

The shadow man’s eyes grew wide with terror, but he silently nodded his assent before creeping from the room. Maggs thought of following him, but decided against it. She wanted to keep an eye on the goblin king. She knew there wasn’t much she could do against him, but she felt compelled all the same to watch him, waiting for any small chance to put a wrench in his dark plans. 

_“Maggs likes old king, not you,”_ she thought bitterly as she settled into the darkness of the ceiling beams. This interloper was unwelcome. He had disrupted the chaotic and carefree joy of her home and replaced it with darkness and fear. Worse, he had made her beloved king go away. The king who let her shadow him around the castle. The king who made it an unwritten rule among the goblins that her place was at his right boot and no one else could sit there. The king who, even when he yelled at the others, would smile and wink down at her. _He_ was her king, not this pretender who couldn’t even pull crystals. 

She watched from her perch as the man below continued to ransack the study. She had no idea what he could be looking for, but she desperately hoped he wouldn’t find it.

* * *

Sarah and Jareth emerged from the dark tunnel and onto a narrow path lit by silvery moonlight. Ahead of them, the gates of the goblin city lay open. The city itself was dark, but just outside the gates, where once had been a vast junkyard, stood a tangle of lights and steel and whirling moving parts. Shrieks and screams echoed out over the click-clack of wheels on tracks while colored lights danced in time to the music of an unseen but slightly out-of-tune calliope. 

“What is that?” Jareth asked, blinking at the jumble of lights and sounds.

Sarah gazed down at the scene with a mixture of horror and awe. “It looks like an amusement park,” she answered. “Why is there an amusement park where the junkyard used to be?”

“I don’t know,” said Jareth. “But it stands between us and the castle. We have no choice but to go through it.”

Beside him, Sarah nodded. The music seemed to swell and change as she and Jareth trudged down the moonlit path toward the blinking lights. As they neared, Sarah could see the twisting shapes of looping roller coasters and spinning tilt-a-whirls shadowed against the low moon. Goblins screamed past, their grotesque faces briefly illuminated by the flashing colored lights. 

Above them, a Ferris wheel tilted precariously over the park, its wheel turning slowly in jarring starts and stops. A few goblins dangled from the rusty cars, screeching and laughing as the blinking wheel lifted them high into the air. 

Sarah shuddered at the scene. She had always been wary of carnivals: hastily assembled rides and sketchy-looking operators who were keen on draining as much cash as they could from their visitors. It didn’t help that Toby had gotten separated from her once during a visit to a traveling amusement park that had set up on the fairgrounds of their town. One minute the five-year-old had been beside her at the cotton candy vendor, the next he had disappeared into the crowd. Sarah had been frantic as she ran through the press of bodies. Her calls to Toby had been swallowed up by the noise of the crowd and the rattling rides and pulsing music. Near panic, she had finally spotted him huddled and crying near the base of the turning Ferris wheel. Sarah had hugged him to her and kissed his sticky little tear-stained face over and over. When he’d calmed sufficiently she had offered him treats, but he’d refused, wanting instead to go home. He never told their parents what had happened, but he’d never asked to go to an amusement park again. 

Sarah glanced around at her surroundings and clenched her fists at her side. The cruelty of Percy using that particular memory to his advantage was unforgivable. Once they reached the castle she would make him pay. 

“Come right this way!” cried a crackly voice, snapping Sarah out of her dark thoughts. She looked down at the creature before her. A withered little goblin woman stood at the entrance of the park. Sarah recognized her as one of the former refuse-laden denizens of the junkyard. Her load of junk was gone from her back, but she still stood hunched as she waved Sarah and Jareth through the gate. 

“Come in, come in,” she gushed. “Take your fill of fun and fright! Try the Wheel of Terror or the Runaway Train!” She motioned up toward the roller coaster.

“We’ve no time for merriment,” Jareth told her. “We’ve got to get to the castle.”

“Well,” the old woman said, scratching her chin, “You’ll need to go through the Hall of Mirrors.” 

“Where is that?” asked Sarah. 

“Just over there,” replied the old goblin woman. She held out a spindly hand and pointed to a creepy-looking building at the far end of the park. “But wouldn’t you much rather take your lady on a ride through the Tunnel of Forbidden Love?” She winked an eye and elbowed Jareth in his side. 

“Move aside, wench,” he growled, stepping around the goblin woman. 

The woman answered with a grunt and glower toward Sarah. “Why are you here with such a grouch?” she asked her. 

“Between you and me,” Sarah replied, “He’s a really great kisser.” 

She ran to catch up with Jareth, leaving the old goblin woman staring after them in bewilderment. 

Jareth stopped at the steps leading into the Hall of Mirrors. “Sarah,” he said seriously, “This is most likely a dangerous trap. We must not get separated. Stay close to me.”

Sarah nodded and followed him up the crumbling steps. As they reached the top, the doors creaked open, drawing them into a dark corridor. Jareth took Sarah’s hand as they stepped into the building and began making their way down the shadowy hall. The building was deathly silent. The clatter and clamoring from outside had vanished, leaving them shrouded in eerie stillness. 

Gradually, the hall brightened but only enough to allow them to see the smooth silver panels of the mirrors hanging from the dark walls. Stopping before one, Sarah and Jareth examined their reflected selves. The mirror was slightly warped, drawing out their reflections and making them appear long and skinny. The next mirror bowed slightly, making them look squat and fat. 

“They’re just funhouse mirrors,” said Sarah, relaxing a bit. 

“Stay on your guard, all the same,” warned Jareth. 

As if in answer to his words, one of the mirrored panels swung out, almost hitting Sarah. She jumped out of the way just in time, dropping Jareth’s hand for a moment. 

“Whoa!” she cried. “That was close!” She reached back for Jareth’s hand, but instead of warm skin, she touched cool glass. Whirling around, she looked up at where Jareth should be, but found only his reflection staring back at her. 

“Sarah?” she could hear his voice, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. 

She spun around again and found the room full of Jareths as the mirrors closed around her. 

“Jareth!” she cried to the hundreds of reflections. She heard him answer and saw the mouths of each reflection form her name, but the sound came from far away. 

“Jareth!” she cried again but this time there was no answer and the mirrors went dark.

Sarah sat still and quiet in the darkness for several moments, waiting and listening. Finally, like a television buzzing to life, a single mirror lit up in the center of the room. Her own reflection sneered down at her.

“Oh Sarah,” her mirror self sang. “Got yourself into trouble again, hmm?”

“Where is Jareth?” Sarah asked her reflection. The face in the mirror narrowed her eyes. 

“He’s facing his own reflection,” she answered. “This isn’t just any mirror, you know,”

“I kinda gathered that,” Sarah retorted. 

“I wouldn’t be so haughty if I were you,” snarled her mirror self. “This mirror can destroy you with a single image.”

Sarah furrowed her brow and crossed her arms over her chest and her reflection did the same. 

“Don’t believe me?” asked the mirror. “I can show you what you fear most. Everything you’ve seen and experienced up till now has been child’s play in comparison. Do you want to see, Sarah? Do you dare gaze into the Nightmare Mirror?”

“Do I have any choice?” Sarah asked her mirror self.

“Not really,” laughed her reflection. “There is no way to the castle but through me.”

“Bring it on then,” Sarah said. “I’m not afraid.”

“Oh, you will be,” the mirror told her with a dark chuckle. 

As Sarah watched, her reflection blurred and was replaced with another image. She gasped as the image cleared.

“Toby!” she cried. The reflection of her brother looked up at her and frowned. His eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed and he looked pale and sickly.

“Sarah,” he groaned. “You-- you-- You _bitch_!” 

Sarah blinked and shook her head as the image of her brother cursed and railed at her. 

“I trusted you!” he screamed. “I trusted you and you betrayed me!”

“What are you talking about, Toby?” Sarah cried.

“You wished me away to the goblins! How could you?”

“Toby, I was fifteen and stupid and selfish and I--”

“Selfish is right,” snarled Toby. “You always talked about how your mom selfishly abandoned you. Well, you’re just as bad, Sarah.”

“No,” Sarah argued, feeling tears stinging the corners of her eyes. “I’m not like her. Maybe I could have been, but I changed.”

“You let me believe it was all a story,” Toby growled. “You aren’t just selfish, you’re a liar too.”

“Toby, I--” Sarah paused, a thought tingling in the back of her mind. She looked back up at the mirror. “This isn’t real,” she told her brother. “This is an illusion. This won’t happen!”

“This _has_ happened Sarah,” answered the mirror. “It _is_ happening! I know what you’ve done and I hate you. I hate you, Sarah. Do you hear me? I. Hate. You.”

Sarah fell to her knees as the image grew, darkening into a figure she no longer recognized. His eyes were cold and dead, his mouth twisted into a wicked grimace. 

“This is all your fault, Sarah, and everything, even the former goblin king will fall because of you!”

“No,” Sarah whispered, leaning forward in anguish. As she bowed to the ground something hard and smooth rolled out of her shirt pocket. She sat up and stared at the object, a rock, no doubt from her fall down into the chasm over the bog. Grasping it tightly, she stood and faced the reflection of her brother. 

“I’ve heard enough out of you,” she snarled as she drew back and released the rock. It soared through the darkness, turning in slow motion until it made contact with the mirror, sending a crack spider-webbing across the surface of the glass. 

“No!” cried Toby as the mirror collapsed in a heap of silver shards. 

Hauling herself up from the ground, Sarah staggered toward the doorway that had opened up behind the shattered mirror, stopping to retrieve the rock from the pile of glass before moving on to find Jareth. She shuffled down the dark hall, feeling her way along the mirrors and listening for any sign of Jareth. 

A muffled sob echoed out from somewhere in the shadows ahead of her and she moved forward following the sound into a large mirrored chamber just like the one she had left. In the dim light of the solitary mirror Sarah could see Jareth standing with his back to her. In front of him, the mirror showed a horrific image: the reflected Jareth sat on his knees with Sarah, lifeless and cold, in his arms. He was wailing as he stared first at her and then at his powerless hands, covered in her blood. 

“Jareth,” Sarah called out, but he didn’t turn. He just kept staring at the nightmarish scene. 

“Jareth please,” she tried again.

A broken sob escaped his throat and he crashed to his knees. He didn’t see the rock that flew over his head as he put his face to the ground. The horrible image splintered in a clatter of broken glass and the room was filled with silver light as the doorway behind the mirror opened and moonlight poured in. 

Sarah ran to Jareth and knelt beside him, gathering him up in her arms and holding him against her. 

“Jareth,” she whispered to him. “It’s okay. What you saw wasn’t real.” She coaxed his head up, forcing him to look at her. “Remember the first rule of the labyrinth,” she said. 

“Sarah,” he groaned hoarsely. “I-- I couldn’t--”

“Shh,” Sarah soothed. “It doesn't matter. It wasn’t real.” She took his hand and helped him to stand. “We have to get out of this place.”

He silently followed her through the path of broken glass and out into the moonlit night. They hurried away from the flashing lights of the carnival and into the shadows of the walls of the goblin city. They stealthily followed the line of the walls, staying out of sight in the dark corners and hidden nooks. In one such nook, they stopped to rest and catch their breath. 

Silence hung over them as they leaned against the wall and thought back on what they had seen.

“Sarah,” Jareth said at last. “That image…” 

“Was a nightmare,” she finished for him. “The mirror told me it would show me what I feared most.”

“What did you see?” asked Jareth.

“I saw my brother,” Sarah answered after a moment. “He told me I was just like my mother and said that he hated me.”

Jareth grunted and turned away. “You know what I saw,” he said quietly.

Sarah moved to him and took his hand. “Jareth,” she said. “I’m here. It’s okay. The mirror lied to both of us.” 

Jareth stared down at her for a moment before pulling her tightly to his chest. She barely had time to register the action before his mouth crashed against hers. Melting into his embrace, Sarah pressed against him, leaning her head back and letting him plunder her mouth with his. She wound her arms over his shoulders, entwining her fingers in the long strands of hair at the base of his neck. 

His mouth left hers and swept over her cheek and jawline to her ear. “Sarah,” he whispered against her ear and a delicious tingle ran down her spine and between her legs. He kissed her mouth again, slowly and deeply as he walked them backward into the shadow of the wall. Sarah’s back hit the wall and before she could even catch her breath he was on her again, pressing into her, letting her feel his body against hers. He ground his hips against her and she gasped as she felt him hard against her center. 

“Sarah,” he rasped. “I need you. Make that horrible image go away.” 

Sarah slid her arms from around his neck and took his face in her hands. She kissed his forehead, then his eyes and then his mouth. She leaned into him, offering up her neck and he kissed a wet line down the column of her throat. Ripping open her plaid shirt, Jareth kissed her along her collarbone and down into the valley between her breasts. He covered one breast with his palm and Sarah moaned his name, feeling her nipples hardening and straining against the thin fabric of her bra. Jareth tugged at the flimsy garment, tearing it away from her flesh and was about to take a pink nipple into his mouth when a rustle behind them caught his attention and a voice spoke out of the darkness.

“Well well, what do we have here?”

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break between postings. I've given you an extra long chapter (with a teensy bit of smut) to make up for it. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone following and leaving kudos and comments on this story. 
> 
> Several of you have commented on Maggs and I am so happy that you like her. If you're interested, she does have a counterpart in the film. About 43:30 minutes in she appears shining the Goblin King's boot as he sits holding Toby. She has pink hair and is, in my opinion, adorable for a goblin. As of this posting, Labyrinth is available for viewing on Amazon Prime. Go check out Maggs and let me know what you think.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> ~Fanny~


	9. Chapter 9

_“Well well, what do we have here?”_

Jareth whirled around, shielding Sarah behind his back as a dark form stepped out of the shadows and into a beam of moonlight.

“The two of you have certainly become… cozy,” purred Percy.

“I’m going to kill you,” Sarah growled, pushing past Jareth before he could stop her. She launched herself at Percy, grappling at his arms to get at his neck. He was stronger though and gripped her wrists and whipped her around, pressing her back tightly against his chest. 

“Sarah,” Jareth said, moving forward to where Percy held her, but stopped dead at a flash of silver.

Percy held the evil-looking dagger against Sarah’s neck, the blade just above her skin.

“Take another step and I’ll kill her,” he warned.

Jareth froze, the image from the Hall of Mirrors still fresh in his mind. “All right,” he said, fighting to keep his voice calm and steady. “You have us, Percy. Put the dagger down. I’ll come with you without a fight.”

Percy smiled but kept the dagger at Sarah’s throat. “I had thought you might need further convincing,” he sneered. “But perhaps you have a soft spot for sweet Sarah, here? The two of you did look rather involved just now.”

“None of your business, asshole,” Sarah hissed, pushing back against him. “Now let me go!” 

“Shh,” Percy whispered into her ear. “I wouldn’t struggle if I were you. You wouldn’t want this blade to slip and cut into that lovely neck of yours, would you?”

“I hate you,” Sarah snarled as he laid the blade against her throat while his other hand slid down the side of her neck. 

Percy licked his lips as he pulled back her open shirt to reveal her bare breasts. 

“Oh Sarah,” he whispered. “What have _I_ done to earn your hatred?”

“You kidnapped my brother,” Sarah said through clenched teeth. “You've been using him, mining his brain for ways to frighten me. 

Jareth looked on helplessly as Percy swept his empty hand across Sarah’s collarbone before cupping an exposed breast.

“So clever, Sarah,” snarled Percy, giving her breast a firm squeeze and drawing a gasp from her lips. “However, you’re quite wrong about everything.”

“Enough,” barked Jareth. “Let her go, Percy. I’m the one you need. Or have you managed to get control of the magic?”

Percy snapped his head up to glare at Jareth. “It’s true,” he began. “There appears to be something of a learning curve when it comes to the magic of the Underground. I’m sure you can be of service, Jareth.”

Jareth’s eyes widened at Percy’s use of his given name.

“That is it, isn’t it?” Percy asked. “Jareth? That’s the name dear Sarah moaned so sweetly while the two of you were… entangled.”

Jareth remained silent, narrowing his eyes at the other man. 

“Well then, _Jareth,_ if you’ll be so kind as to throw down your sword, I will release Sarah and we can be on our way to the castle.”

Jareth wordlessly reached behind him and removed his sword from his back and tossed it onto the ground. Percy kicked the sword away with a smug smile and then released his grip on Sarah. 

“Bastard,” Sarah snapped as she wrenched away from him and moved to Jareth’s side. She fumbled with the remaining buttons on her shirt, but her fingers were shaking too badly to fasten them. Jareth gently swatted her quivering hands away and fastened the buttons for her.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “This is my fault for getting caught up in-”

“Stop your whispering,” cried Percy. “You may think you still have the upper hand since it’s the two of you against my one. Yet, even without the magic of the Underground, the Labyrinth supplies her lord with what is needed.”

He stepped aside and the ground where he had stood trembled and cracked open. Sarah and Jareth watched, horrified, as a grotesque arm shot out of the dark crevice. A head followed and then a body and legs. The figure hauled itself out of the earth and stood and was quickly joined by another deformed creature. More of them appeared, crawling up and out of the ground like spiders. They stood in a row, seven in all, wearing dark armor and carrying an assortment of weapons: swords, clubs, maces. 

“Orcs?” hissed Sarah. “You made orcs?”

Percy gave a deep guttural laugh before motioning the newly-formed forces onward. The orcs moved into position, flanking Jareth and Sarah on either side and in front and back. 

“What are orcs?” Jareth asked as they were hustled forward.

“They’re creatures from _The_ _Lord of the Rings,_ ” Sarah told him. “Toby and I used to watch the movies together. The orcs always scared him. Gave him nightmares.”

“I see,” said Jareth. His expression grew dark.

“What is it?” Sarah asked.

Jareth turned to her. “Sarah, there’s something I think you should know--”

“Quiet, filth,” growled one of the orcs, raising his pointed mace. 

The orc pushed Jareth away from her and stepped in between them, brandishing his weapon and forcing them to remain silent as they were led into the gates of the goblin city.

* * *

The sound of doors crashing open roused Maggs from her sleep and she peered down from the rafters at the scene below. Many figures walked about the dark throne room. There were new, ugly creatures she had never seen before, but there was also a pretty girl and-- Maggs blinked hard once and then again. Could it be? 

_Old King!_ She almost whooped aloud in her excitement, but caught herself. Bursting with glee, she bounced on her little goblin toes as she watched the ugly creatures shuffle her king and the pretty girl toward the throne. 

_“Old King is back!” she thought. “He can make new king go away. Maggs doesn’t like new king.”_

Her little ears perked up to the voices down below. The pretty girl was talking. Maggs listened.

* * *

  
  


“I want to see my brother,” Sarah demanded. 

Percy smiled. “Of course,” he said. 

“He had better not be harmed.”

“I would never dare to harm your brother,” Percy told her and there was an undertone of bitterness to his voice that she didn’t understand. 

“Where is he?” Sarah asked.

“He has been summoned,” answered Percy. “But Sarah, you must remember where you are and who you are. This is the Goblin Kingdom and you are here as a guest, albeit uninvited. I must advise you to show proper deference.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You will bow to the Goblin King.”

Sarah laughed out loud. “I will never bow to you,” she scoffed.

Percy stared at her for a moment before realization dawned on him and he chuckled. “Oh Sarah,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought you were more clever than that. I am not the king of the goblins.”

“If it’s not you, then--?” Sarah looked to Jareth. His eyes were sad. 

“Sarah, I’m so sorry,” he whispered. 

“I don’t understand,” Sarah said, looking back at Percy. He only regarded her with disdain.

“Bow,” he commanded. “Bow before His Majesty, the King of the Goblins!”

There was a sound like buzzing electricity and the walls of the throne room lit up to reveal a figure in black standing at the top of a dais before the curved throne. At the sight of his face, Sarah’s blood froze. Her heart stopped and the world around her blurred and went dark. She could see only him, clad in ebony and bearing the sigil of the Goblin Kingdom against his chest. 

She might not have recognized him if it hadn’t been for his eyes. His blonde curls had been darkened and cut into short spikes all over his head, but his bright blue eyes stood out against the layers of black surrounding him. They narrowed in on her as she took him in. He wore a fitted black shirt and sleek black pants with a broad belt cinched with three buckles. An inky cloak with a high collar was slung over one shoulder and overlaid with a leather shoulder plate fitted with metal spikes. Black leather gloves covered his hands and he wore thick leather boots with metal fastenings on his feet.

“Toby,” Sarah managed to squeak.

He glared down at her from the top of the dais. “Hello Sarah,” he hissed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Toby, what have you done?” asked his sister, her voice quivering. 

“What does it look like?” he asked sarcastically. “I’ve become the Goblin King.”

“But… but why?”

Toby let out a harsh little laugh and stepped down off the dais. His long cape billowed out behind him as he walked down the stairs to stand before his sister. 

“You wished me away, Sarah,” he said quietly. “I never knew. I thought it was just a story. You let me believe it was just a story. But I learned the truth, Sarah.” He reached out a gloved hand and touched his sister’s cheek. 

“When I found out what you had done I was devastated. It hurt me so much. And I wanted to hurt you back.”

“Toby…”

He curled his fingers around her jaw, silencing her. Behind them, Jareth lurched forward, but two of the orcs caught him and held him back.

“You have no choice but to respect me now, Sarah,” he said. “I am king here and you are an invader. That is grounds for imprisonment. Perhaps even execution.”

“Toby, you wouldn’t” argued Sarah. “I’m your sister!”

Toby raised the hand that had been cradling her jaw and smacked her hard across the face. Sarah staggered backward, clutching her hands to her reddened cheek. 

“You’re only a half-sister,” Toby snarled. “And like a spoiled brat you wished me away to the goblins!”

Sarah dropped her hands from her face, now marked by a red handprint and stared up at her brother. 

“You’re right,” she said. “I was a spoiled brat. I did a really stupid and horrible thing, Toby. I wished you away. And I immediately regretted it. I begged to have you back, but that’s not how it works. I had to _win_ you back. And I did, Toby. I fought so hard and faced so much to get you back. And now I…” Her voice trailed off as tears began to flow. 

Toby stared down at her, his expression cold.

“I’ve spent the last thirteen years trying to make it up to you, Toby,” Sarah sobbed. “I tried to be a good big sister.”

“But you lied,” Toby spat. “You didn’t tell me the truth.”

“Yes, and now you see why! I didn’t want something like _this_ to happen!”

Toby rolled his eyes. “That worked out great then, didn’t it?”

“Toby please, ask Jareth. He’ll tell you how hard I fought for you,” Sarah said desperately. 

Her brother only shrugged and sighed. “Right,” he sneered. “Like I’m going to believe anything _he_ says. The fact that you’re even here with the likes of him tells me a lot about you and your loyalties, Sarah.”

“We’ve laid aside our differences to help one another,” Sarah explained. “I thought you had been taken against your will. Jareth and I came to rescue you and get his throne back.”

“I see,” scoffed Toby. “And that explains why the two of you reek of sex.”

He wrinkled up his nose and stepped to where Jareth was held between two orcs. 

“Tell me,” he began. “How long have you been screwing my sister? Was that part of the initial bargain? Did she have to fuck you in order to get me back?”

“You should watch your tongue, young man,” Jareth replied, his voice like ice. “While your sister would have done anything to win you back, she didn’t _fuck_ me, as you so eloquently put it. That was never part of the deal. Sarah won you back by solving the labyrinth, not by giving herself to me.”

Toby shot an icy stare back and forth between Jareth and Sarah.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said coldly. “The two of you are here as invaders and traitors to the crown. You’ve admitted that you came to take my throne away. That is enough to have you both executed.” 

“Toby-” 

He held up a hand to Sarah’s protestations. 

“However, I’m a generous king. I’ll grant you clemency in exchange for your service.” He looked at Jareth. “Do you understand? You’ll teach me how to use my magic, and I’ll let you live. Fair?”

“I wouldn’t say that it’s fair,” Jareth answered calmly, “But I accept the terms.”

“Good.”

Toby turned to Percy. “Lock them up somewhere and make sure they can’t escape.”

Percy fixed his gaze on Sarah, eyeing her hungrily. “Sire,” he began, “I delivered the traitors to you, so I would like to ask for something as a reward. I’d like to have her.” He licked his lips and Sarah shuddered at the way he said “have.” 

Toby sighed and folded his arms over his chest and Sarah looked up at him with pleading eyes.

_Toby, please don’t._

“How can you dare to ask me for a reward after all your bumbling?” Toby spat at Percy. “You only managed to find them after I threatened you.”

He stomped a few feet away before turning back to the other man. “No,” he said. “You won’t touch her.”

Sarah’s relief was short-lived when her brother added, “At least not yet. Take them away.”

There was an evil glint in Percy’s eye when he gripped Sarah’s arm and led her away to the dark cells in the bowels of the castle. Behind them, Jareth was roughly hustled along by the orcs down dank staircases and forgotten passageways to the dungeon. None of them noticed the small form above their heads, creeping across the columns and beams, following them into the depths of the castle. 

* * *

Sarah stumbled in the dark as one of the orcs shoved her into a cell. She pitched forward, losing her balance and crashing to the floor with a yelp.

“Sarah!” Jareth cried from the next cell. “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay,” she answered as she sat up and rubbed her arm. “Just a bit bruised.”

“Don’t even think about getting into any mischief,” Percy called from the doorway. “These cells will be guarded. You won’t be able to escape.”

He chuckled and closed the heavy wooden door behind him and locked it before shouting some orders to the orcs. Shadows moved back and forth in the small slit between the door and the floor and Sarah knew the orcs were pacing, keeping watch over the cells where she and Jareth were held.

“Jareth?” she called out to the dark.

“I’m here, Sarah,” he answered. “I’m by the wall. Follow my voice. There’s a small chink in the stone.”

Sarah did as he asked, feeling her way in the dim light over to the wall between the cells and the sound of Jareth’s voice. Just as he said, there was a small crack in the stonework of the wall, just large enough to clearly hear him as he spoke. 

“Sarah…” 

“You knew, didn’t you?” she interrupted. Her voice wasn’t harsh, but he could hear the bitterness in it. “You knew it was Toby and not Percy.”

“Yes,” Jareth admitted.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t certain. Not until the orcs appeared. When you told me about Toby’s fear of them, I knew. Even if Percy had become the Goblin King he wouldn’t have been able to see Toby’s thoughts without full control of the magic. There was only one way that all the nightmares we encountered had been created.”

“The labyrinth,” said Sarah.

“In his state of bitterness and rage, it misinterpreted the nightmares of a young boy as the dreams of a Goblin King,” Jareth told her. “Toby’s anger must have been powerful for the labyrinth to make such an error.”

“This is all my fault,” groaned Sarah. “I should have told him the truth a long time ago. Now he hates me.” She let out a heavy sigh. “The mirror was right.”

Jareth choked down the enormous lump that had formed in his throat at the thought of the mirrors’ predictions coming true.

“Sarah,” he said, trying to sound calm, “Nothing will be gained by wallowing in guilt. Your brother is seeking revenge, but we can buy time. He knows I’m the only way he can get control of the magic. And he knows that I will only help him if he keeps you unharmed. He needs us, Sarah. We have the upper hand.”

“What about Percy?” Sarah asked. “If Toby gets control of the magic, Percy will want him to try to turn the goblins back.”

“I can stall,” Jareth answered. “In truth, the magic of the Underground takes eons to be able to wield with skill. It’s not something one can learn in a few short lessons. We have to remain calm and play Toby’s game while we formulate a plan.”

“I don’t want him to be hurt,” Sarah said quietly. “No matter what he’s done.”

“Of course not, Sarah,” replied Jareth. “But Toby has done a foolish and dangerous thing. If and when things are righted, he may not emerge unscathed.”

* * *

Maggs watched the gruesome creatures as they paced back and forth in front of the dungeon doors. She had never seen such hideous beings, even among goblin-kind. They were hulking and gruff and they carried awful-looking weapons. 

_“Maggs shouldn’t be here,”_ she told herself. The creatures were dangerous and would probably eat her if they caught her. But she couldn’t leave. Not with her king and the pretty girl locked up in the dark. She just had to wait.

She settled down into a shadowy corner above the orcs’ heads and watched them as their pacing slowed and their weapons began to slump on their shoulders. 

_“Just gotta stay awake,”_ she yawned. _“Gotta stay awake and wait.”_

* * *

“King!”

Jareth was awakened by a whisper in the dark. He sat up and listened, unsure of what he had heard.

“King!” the whisper came again. Jareth scrambled to his feet and followed the sound to the door of his cell.

“Who’s there?” he whispered. 

“Me,” answered a small voice and he could hear that it came from the bottom of the door. He knelt down and spoke quietly.

“Maggs? Is that you?” 

“Yes!” Maggs answered a bit too excitedly and Jareth hushed her.

“What are you doing here?” As thrilled and relieved as he was to hear her voice, he feared for her safety if the orcs spotted her. “It isn’t safe, Maggs,” he warned. “Go back.”

“Maggs helping king,” she told him. “Waited till uglies was sleeping.”

“That was very brave, Maggs,” Jareth said warmly. “I don’t think you can help unless you can get the key to this cell.”

“No,” Maggs replied sadly. “Shadow man has key and Maggs is afraid of him.”

“Rightly so,” answered Jareth.

Sarah stirred at the sound of voices and crept to the chink in the wall. “Jareth?” she called quietly.

“Sarah,” Jareth answered. “Maggs is here and wants to help us. The orcs are sleeping but Percy has the key to the doors.”

“Hoggle,” Sarah told him. “Hoggle has keys to everything.”

“But we don’t know where he is or if he’s even alive.”

“I can find!” Maggs offered. 

“No Maggs, it’s too dangerous for you to leave the castle,” Jareth told her. 

There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment and then tiny leathery fingers slipped beneath the doorframe. 

“Maggs isn’t afraid,” she answered quietly. “Maggs just wants King back. Let Maggs help.”

Jareth reached town and caressed the goblin’s little fingers. “Oh Maggs,” he breathed. “What am I to do with you?” He shook his head and gave a little laugh. “Fine,” he said. “Go and try to find Hoggle. But stay hidden. They’ll kill you if they find you and that would make me very sad. You don’t want to make your king sad, do you Maggs?”

“Nooo,” answered the little goblin.

“Then do as I command.”

“Yes! Yes, King! I do!” 

“Quietly then.”

“Okay, shhhh! I quiet!” Maggs whispered and Jareth couldn’t help but smile. 

“Good luck, Maggs,” he told her.

“Be back soon, King!” he heard her say as she scampered off into the dark.

Jareth leaned against the door and sighed. 

“I certainly hope so.”

* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, before any of you accuse me of cheating in my M. Night Shyamalan twist, kindly go back and see if there is anywhere that I specifically said that Percy was the goblin king. Go on, I'll wait... Back? Ok. Jareth and Sarah assumed it was Percy, but otherwise GK was only identified as the new goblin king. 
> 
> The inspiration for Toby's Goblin King outfit (and other story inspo) is on my Pinterest board:https://www.pinterest.com/philyra/siege-of-wishers/ 
> 
> Thanks again for all the Kudos, subscriptions, comments and reviews on this story. There's still a long way to go and several more twists and turns before we're done! 
> 
> ~Fanny~

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go, kiddies! I hope you're ready for another whirlwind adventure. This story will likely delve into some darker territory and I will be posting warnings as these elements come up. Please pay attention and heed the warnings!
> 
> As always, I welcome all comments and feedback, positive and negative. I will do my best to answer your comments and/or questions personally. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> ~Fanny~


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